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Author Topic: U.S. prisons hold one-quarter of world's inmates
unionist
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posted 01 March 2008 02:41 PM      Profile for unionist     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This is hard to believe, but all the MSM are reporting it:

American jails hold quarter of world's inmates

quote:
A REPORT showing that one in 100 Americans adults is in jail ...

Susan Urahn, a senior Pew researcher, said the US now held one in four of the world’s prisoners. China was second, with 1.5m people behind bars [...]

In some cities, young black men are said to be vanishing from the streets because of a combination of jail and recruitment by the armed forces. According to the Pew report, one in nine black men aged between 20 and 34 is in prison.


Thank God all parties in our House of Commons joined forces to pass the omnibus crime bill. How else can we hope to stay competitive?


From: Vote QS! | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
catherine-l
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posted 02 March 2008 03:53 AM      Profile for catherine-l        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
US incarceration rates are shocking and it is really sad that Canada is moving more to a US style approach without resistance from any political party. I view this as part of our overall dumbing-down on political discourse. Harper talks about voters perceptions on crime taking priority over facts. What we would have needed, but didn't have, is a political leader who was willing not to pander to these perceptions, and to instead raise the level of political discourse on this topic.

Canada also has its own shameful distinctions on incarceration rates.

quote:
While Aboriginal people make up only 2.7 percent of the Canadian population, they account for 18.5 percent of the federal prison population (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2006). According to Statistics Canada data, while the overall incarceration rate for non-Aboriginal people is 117 per 100,000 adults, the overall incarceration rate for Aboriginal people in Canada is estimated to be 1,024 per 100,000 — or almost 9 times higher for Aboriginal persons.

[ 02 March 2008: Message edited by: catherine-l ]


From: ontario | Registered: Jun 2007  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 02 March 2008 12:10 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This is the country our two old line parties have been selling Canadians out to over the years.

This is the country our stoogeocrats want deep economic integration with.

This is one of the reasons I exercise my democratic right to vote against both the Tories and Liberals every chance I get. Because 14 decades in a row of the same-old same-old is anything but democratic.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
melovesproles
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posted 02 March 2008 12:46 PM      Profile for melovesproles     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
This is the country our two old line parties have been selling Canadians out to over the years.

This is the country our stoogeocrats want deep economic integration with.

This is one of the reasons I exercise my democratic right to vote against both the Tories and Liberals every chance I get.


Same, which is why I'm pissed my NDP MP voted to pass their bullshit crime legislation moving us in exactly that direction.


From: BC | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
scooter
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posted 02 March 2008 01:26 PM      Profile for scooter     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Another statistic that came out this week:

Over 1 in 100 adult americans are now behind bars.

1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says, New York Times, Admin Liptik


From: High River | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
unionist
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posted 02 March 2008 01:46 PM      Profile for unionist     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by scooter:
Another statistic that came out this week:

Over 1 in 100 adult americans are now behind bars.


Did you read the boldface part of the opening post?


From: Vote QS! | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 02 March 2008 02:11 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Jail 'im and throw away the key.
From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 02 March 2008 04:20 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I was struck by this comment:

“It’s terrible we have to incarcerate so many so the rest of us can live safely,” he said. “But that’s the price of living in the most free society in the world.”


What else can I say, but:


From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 02 March 2008 07:26 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by melovesproles:

Same, which is why I'm pissed my NDP MP voted to pass their bullshit crime legislation moving us in exactly that direction.


There are still quite a few differences between the U.S. and Canada that would make those kinds of incarceration rates in Canada near impossible in the short run. Canada doesn't have nearly the same kind of desperation and grinding poverty in our inner cities.

The Tory crime bill wasn't about a concern for crime in Canada. They are actually weak on white collar crime, the most expensive type of crime and costing several times more to our economy than the blue collar street variety.

What the omnibus crime bill was about was Harper goading the opposition parties into bringing down the 24 percent Tory government resuling in an election call, which would have been fought from an angle of perceieved Tory Party strength, which they claim is their tough stance on crime.

The bottom line is, I don't want another four years of the Tories OR their best friends in Ottawa, the Liberal Party of Canada. And apparently few Canadians want to see either of the two old line parties with a majority. The NDP Party says what we need is electoral reform to put an end to this bullshit style of politicking. And I agree. I am sick to death of these two old line parties running roughshod over democracy in this country.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 02 March 2008 07:49 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Fidel:
The NDP Party says what we need is electoral reform to put an end to this bullshit style of politicking. And I agree. I am sick to death of these two old line parties running roughshod over democracy in this country.
You talk as if electoral reform alone will give Canada different governments than we have now.

Most proposals for electoral reform involve some kind of proportional representation and therefore more frequent minority governments.

Canada's New LiberaTory Coalition Government™ is in fact a prime example of the kind of governments we can look forward to under proportional representation.

Not that either of the two major bourgeois parties are ever going to bring in such an electoral reform, since they are the prime beneficiaries of the current system.

So don't kid yourself that electoral reform is likely any time soon, or that it would put an end to the "bullshit style of politicking."

Real social change doesn't come through the ballot box anyway. Hugo Chavez may yet be the exception that proves the rule, but his project is currently stalling badly. Electoralism and parliamentarism as political strategies are akin to shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 02 March 2008 08:57 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by M. Spector:

So don't kid yourself that electoral reform is likely any time soon, or that it would put an end to the "bullshit style of politicking."

Hugo Chavez may yet be the exception that proves the rule, but his project is currently stalling badly.



Venezuela has an MMP style of electoral system.

And they've had three national referendums since Chavez was elected.

And despite a CIA-funded disinformation campaign, and despite Chavez himself recommending against as many constitutional amendments being put to one national question, the socialist constitutional reforms received more popular support than the vast majority of Canada's phony-majority governments in recent history were able to claim in general elections.

I think electoral reform would mean the end of Liberal Party dynasties in Ottawa, and the end of phony-baloney, phony-majority governments taking Canadian voters for granted. But the two old line parties would prefer to keep one another company in Ottawa for many years more to come than allow the NDP a proportional number of seats in the House of Commons. And the NDP in opposition would be the ultimate terror for the stoogeocratic parties, and the very last thing they would want in Ottawa.

"They [Chileans] can't be trusted with democracy" -- the doctor to the madman and CIA. And apparently Canadians can't be trusted with advanced democracy today.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 02 March 2008 09:15 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Fidel:
I think electoral reform would mean the end of Liberal Party dynasties in Ottawa, and the end of phony-baloney, phony-majority governments taking Canadian voters for granted.
People are suddenly going to stop voting for the Liberals once we get electoral reform (in the sweet by-and-by)?? I don't think so.

Instead of "phony majority governments" we will get "legitimate" minority governments - much like the one we have now. That's progress? I don't think so.

quote:
And the NDP in opposition would be the ultimate terror for the stoogeocratic parties, and the very last thing they would want in Ottawa.
I'm not sure "ultimate terror" is the appropriate phrase.

More like "minor annoyance."


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 02 March 2008 09:35 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by M. Spector:
People are suddenly going to stop voting for the Liberals once we get electoral reform (in the sweet by-and-by)?? I don't think so.
Instead of "phony majority governments" we will get "legitimate" minority governments - much like the one we have now. That's progress? I don't think so.

Where in the 70-some odd countries where advanced democracy exists are Liberal stoogeocrats in power or in strong opposition to conservative governments, which themselves are defanged by proportional voting ?

If we want competitive Nordic-style economies and advanced social democracy, then we need a more competitive electoral system.

One theory as to why voters in Nordic countries have greater participation rates in elections is that they tend to vote in order to protect their social democracy from neutered Conservative and Liberal party promises to screw them over in favour of EU oligarchs and western-style reforms. And when those two parties are elected once in a blue, they tend to govern like weak renditions of their North American political counterparts.

Here in the two North American stoogeocracies, voters are reduced to voting so as not to elect a bunch of right-wing whackos. And even with FPP in the U.S., the last bastion of right-wing whackos are having to resort to stealing elections.

And so some large percentage of voters in the US and Canada vote Liberal as the lesser of two evils. Some of us vote with our hearts regardless of the anticipated outcome and vote NDP and Nader, the way it's supposed to be in real democracies.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged

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