William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about prisons in the United States. Why are so many people in prison? What are some resolutions to this? This is Part 1 of 2 episodes.
We first discuss the imprisonment rate by country across the world. Unfortunately, the US is one of the highest in the world, superseded only by a handful of other countries. We then discuss where prisoners are incarcerated in the United States. Most prisoners are held either in local jails or in state prisons, with much fewer people in federal prisons.
Then we discuss the causes and non-causes of the high incarceration rate. Non-causes include private prisons and prison labor. Although they are controversial policies, they are not the driving factor behind high incarceration. Marginal causes include the drug war – they are not a leading cause of incarceration, but do contribute to a degree to the incarceration rate. The real causes of high incarceration include tough on crime policies such as three strike laws, mandatory minimum sentences, strict probation and parole requirements, and more.
5:51 Imprisonment rate by country
10:33 Prison rate map
13:00 Where prisoners are at
15:11 Non-causes
18:41 The sort-of causes
20:46 Real causes
22:08 Mandatory min
22:41 Pre-trial detention
26:12 Probation & parole
28:33 Reddit/twitter arguments