re: America has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world - Cause?

Lack of decent/loving fathers is the main issue as well as lack of personal responsibility and consequences.
A lot of people here on the OT are all for legalizing drugs. The thing is most OTers can do a little drugs at home, still work, still remain productive members of society, and not have addiction issues.
Most of these criminals have drug addictions that result in theft and armed robbery to get drugs. Why make it easier for these people to get drugs that result in them murdering, raping, and robbing people while they’re on them?

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One thing that I find baffling about the war on drugs is that it seems like one of the few issues that the average American on either side of the political fence can agree on. I don't know if it is the prison lobby, prescription drug lobby, or something else that is keeping it going. It just seems like the pros far outweigh the cons of ending the war on drugs.

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I suppose there's simply too many people making too much money off the drug war. And the drug war is the main reason the US has the incarceration rate you would expect from the worst type of hypothetical dictatorship.



The war on drugs contains much more blatant examples of government overreach, crony-capitalism, "the swamp", ineffective swollen government bureaucracy, systemic racism, anti-Libertarian morals masquerading as law, encroaching on Civil Rights etc etc etc. . . than anything else you ever hear people complain about.

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I get 15%

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I put the decimal in the wrong spot

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A lot of people here on the OT are all for legalizing drugs

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legalization of marijuana seems to be a consensus yes. I don't think the majority believe we should legalize crack or meth

400,000 people in jail for drugs between local, Federal, and state. Many murders and other violent crimes are related to the illegal sale of drugs.

The United States has managed to simultaneously possess the wealthiest, most advanced society in the history of human civilization, as well the largest prison population in the history of human civilization.

It’s a staggering accomplishment.

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America has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world - Cause?
It's (mostly) beyond contestation (ignoring distractions like whether we know for sure what North Korea's incarceration rate is) that the United States has not only the largest prison population, but also the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world. And if you are dead set on quibbling about whether we are the absolute highest, we are certainly within the top handful.

With people on both sides thinking that the other side is idiotic, insane, or both when they present solutions to fix the issue, I was wondering what people believe the cause of the issue is in the first place.

Do we have more laws than everyone else? Do we have the highest percentage of people who are simply criminal to their core? Are our police simply that much more effective/efficient than everyone else's? Some other reason entirely?

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America is the most individualistic society on the planet. It's one of the only ones where individuality is spelled out in the founding of the country itself.

Individuality breeds a fight over resources, a belief in the self and ones resources and it empowers both incredible good and incredible bad. And as much as we can be nationalist, that nationalism is build a bedrock of "me and mine first. No tribe, no conformity. No group think." (Sure there are groupthink segments now, and we are losing it, but still).

It's the most important thing we focus on, and also one of the most destructive when we aren't responsible with it.

Too many asshoe?

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So only 1.6% of inmates are incarcerated because of drugs


So, that clearly seems to be a false narrative at this point

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So now that you've established you can't function a calculator or do long division... how would you like to address your 2nd statement, that was based on your shite math?

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how would you like to address your 2nd statement, that was based on your shite math?

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My math was fine. I typed wrong. 16%

My second statement still holds true

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If you take out all drug related incarcerations (400k), we would still be second in the world for incarceration rate(fall behind Russia only)

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