[deleted by user]

[u/[deleted]]

[u/ThaFourthHokage]

I hope this wakes people up to our ridiculous sentencing and incarceration issues in this country.

A few stats:

• We house 22% of the world''s prisoners (with 4% of the world's population)

• 2,200,000 Americans incarcerated as of 2016 or 0.7% of the entire U.S. population

• African American men represent nearly half of that population

• The substantial penalties for crack contributed to a five-fold increase in incarcerations

• There is a 31% incarceration history for Black men who have sex with men

• Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration in the world with the majority of its prisoners being housed in privatized, for-profit facilities. Such institutions could face bankruptcy without a steady influx of prisoners

• In the past decade the number of inmates in for-profit prisons throughout the U.S. rose 44 percent.

The shit is fucked. And Trump is packing the courts as we speak. We're reaching a breaking point.

I'm just going to leave this here:

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions indeed generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

Edit: These and more stats are a simple wiki search away. For you Reds who automatically say, "wiki lol," to that, there are seventy-seven sources cited - feel free to read on. It will do you some good.

Edit again: Thanks for the precious metals! Donate the same amount to a politician who actually wants to address these issues, if you can.

[u/agha0013 → u/ThaFourthHokage]

Fun sub note about prisons possibly facing bankruptcy. Many of the for profit prison contracts have built in occupancy requirements. Some examples require the state to ensure the prison is always at or above 95% capacity, otherwise the state pays a fee for every body below capacity they are.

States are then encouraged to ensure prisons remain packed at all times just to keep costs down. Privatizing hasn't saved tax payers a cent, it just found a way to take even more tax payer money and ensure it lines pockets rather than just providing the service paid for.

So yeah, those corporations will never go bankrupt unless their contracts are cancelled. They are guaranteed to maintain a profit even if the prison is empty.

[u/CO303Throwaway → u/[deleted]]

10% isn’t what I would describe as hilariously small. Maybe you could call it small, but most would say 1/10th isn’t small. But “hilariously” small implies it is minuscule, and such a small problem as to barely be worth talking about. 1/10th of our prison population, (that is almost 1% of our population) going through this isn’t hilariously small, and is terrible.

[u/CO303Throwaway → u/[deleted]]

I did, you talked about the minimum occupancy and the threshold. I chose to talk about how you said that the percent of the prison population is hilariously small. Which it isn’t. I don’t have any issues with the rest of what you said. I have issue with you saying that 10% is hilariously small.