According to this story, our laws are just too darn tough…sending more people to prison in raw numbers and per capita than any other country in the world. Really? I don’t dispute the numbers; but, let’s not be so quick to pin down the ’cause’ for this condition.
Quoting from the article, “A U.S. Justice Department report released on November 30 showed that a record 7 million people — or one in every 32 American adults — were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year. Of the total, 2.2 million were in prison or jail. … More people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. China ranks second with 1.5 million prisoners, followed by Russia with 870,000. The U.S. incarceration rate of 737 per 100,000 people in the highest, followed by 611 in Russia and 547 for St. Kitts and Nevis. In contrast, the incarceration rates in many Western industrial nations range around 100 per 100,000 people.” So, the numbers appear to add up…
All cultures are not created equal. Each one results in different patterns of public and private behavior. Alexis de Tocqueville said of us in 1832 after visiting the US the previous year, “America will be great as long as it is good. When America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.” When the Constitutional Convention of 1789 had adjourned, a woman is reported to have inquired of Benjamin Franklin as he came out of the hall, “Sir, what kind of government did you give us?” To which it is said that he replied, “A republic, Ma’am…for as long as you can keep it.” Our republic operated well for over 175 years, and we were the envy of all.
Now look at us. Drug and alcohol abuse are at epidemic levels. Our adults are abusing our children, and our children are killing each other. Our lawmakers are forever on the take and selling us out to the highest bidder. Our media is not just biased as it always has been, it now pushes-out outright lies and acts so impudent when caught in the act. (Bias is not a bad thing. I choose to write about what interests me. If it doesn’t interest me, you won’t read about it here. That’s bias.) We now tolerate open homosexuality — no society has ever done that and remained around for long to revel in it.
Our republic, and the laws which we have written for ourselves, are founded on us being able to exercise self-control. That used to be a hallmark of our culture. That trait has been replaced by instant gratification. We’re no longer ‘good’. Mr. de Tocqueville told us what would come next. Anyone care to disagree that we are no longer ‘great’?
When self-control is not a trait of a culture, as is the case in most of the world, laws either do not address the ’small stuff’, or they’re simply not enforced. Our old judicial system has not yet gotten into synch with our new culture. That is why so many of my fellow citizens are in jail. (They’re not all my fellow citizens, as the article neglects to report that as many as 30 percent of federal inmates may be here illegally. I’ll bet the farm that similar numbers are found in state prisons.)
I don’t care what the ‘experts’ or the rest of the world thinks about the size of our prison population. In the short term, we may have to relax our laws. But, in the long term, my hope is that we return to being a ‘good’ people.
Sorry, the Tocqueville quotation is spurious. See: http://www.tocqueville.org/pitney.htm
That may be true. Regardless of the source, the observation is still an accurate one.