[LINK] NYT: Snowden is a whistleblower and should be offered a plea to return home

Rick Welykochy rick at vitendo.ca
Fri Jan 3 06:30:40 AEDT 2014


Scott Howard wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 9:21 PM, Rick Welykochy <rick at vitendo.ca <mailto:rick at vitendo.ca>> wrote:
>
>     Note that the US prison system has been privatised and is run for
>     profit. This has resulted in a higher incarceration rate.
>
>
> Actually the number of prisoners has been steadily reducing since 2009.
>
>     The incarceration rate is nearly 1 per 100 head of population, definitely 1% for the
>     adult population. By far the majority of inmates are black.
>
>
> The incarceration rate is around 626 people per 100,000, or much closer to half a percent than "definitely 1%". Black prisoners make up roughly 38% of all prisoners (ie, far from the "majority"), 
> with white prisoners at 35% and Hispanics at 21%. Black and Hispanics do make up a disproportionate number of prisoners relative to the general US population.
>
> Probably the most telling figure is that 53% of all prisoners are incarcerated for violent crimes, and over 12% of all prisons are in for murder (not including manslaughter).
>
> (All figures taken from the U.S. Department of Justice 'Prisoners in 2012 - Advance Counts", http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p12ac.pdf)
>

I stand corrected, Scott. Thanks for the figures.
My source was some possibly hysterical news reporting on the telly a few years back.

cheers
rickw

-- 
------------------------------------
Rick Welykochy || Vitendo Consulting

Anybody who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.
      -- Samuel Goldwyn




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