In yet another example of how fucked up the priorities are in the Amerika of the Chimperator, in addition to living with domestic spying on citizens at levels equal to Russia and Communist China, we also have the infamy of locking up a higher percentage of our citizens than any other country. The GOP and its Christianist base oppose funding almost every program that better the education, circumstances and lives of citizens, yet they happily finance prisons to lock up those who might have avoided a life of crime had proper programs been available (no doubt in part because a disproportionate number of inmates are minorities - translation, not whites - who the Christianists don't like). Moreover, with the country's draconian drug laws, minor offenders often end up in prison which only increases the likelihood that they will have more scrapes with the law once they are released. I truly dispair at being an American at times. Here are some highlights of the findings of the Pew Center (http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/One%20in%20100.pdf):
The United States incarcerates more people than any country in the world, including the far more populousnation of China. At the start of the new year, the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults. China was second, with 1.5 million people behind bars, and Russia was a distant third with 890,000 inmates, according to the latest available figures. Beyond the sheer number of inmates, America also is the global leader in the rate atwhich it incarcerates its citizenry, outpacing nations like South Africa and Iran. In Germany, 93 peopleare in prison for every 100,000 adults andchildren. In the U.S, the rate is roughly eight timesthat, or 750 per 100,000.
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