Welcome to Land of the Free
This is a six year old article, but well worth checking out (if you read Swedish):
ETC – Välkommen till frihetens land (Dan Josefsson).
Some of the many points:
– USA’s prison population is relatively (percentage of entire population) ten times as high as that of Sweden and five times as high as that of, for example the UK.
– The unemployment rate would be considerably higher in the USA if the inmates – now forced to slavery work – would be counted.
– The prison industry in the USA has exploded at the same time – since the 70’s – that criminality has in fact gone down.
– A third of all young black men in US ghettos are or have been in jail.
– No less than 4 million Americans (1,8 million of them black) have lost their voting right because of a criminal record.
– The money spent on each inmate per year could well finance one year’s education at Harvard.
– In the 50’s, sociologists actually thought that prisons could be abolished in the USA one day.
The writer, Dan Josefsson, also gives plenty of examples of how unfairly the “three strikes – you’re out”-law hits. (If you can’t read Swedish, check out this article for one of them: Los Angeles CityBeat.)
He quotes the Berkeley professor Loïc Wacquant, who belives that the prisons are merely USA”s way of denying black people their rights – i e the urban ghettos, where African Americans rioted in the 60’s, have only been moved into the correctional facilities. Most of the “ordinary Americans” that are interviewed in the article have ridiculuosly hard views on how inmates should be treated, for example that they should be executed immediately or have their hands chopped off.
I learned a lot from Dan Josefsson’s article and will do some research to see what has happened since 1999 when he wrote it. Even if I haven’t come further into Californian prisons than to the reception area (of Twin Towers in Los Angeles in December 2004 and California Institution for Women in Corona in May this year) what I have seen and heard makes sense when I read this. Let’s hope I get to write something about it somewhere.
/Gunilla
THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WOULD NOT AT ALL BE AFFECTED BY THE PRISON POPULATION BECAUSE THE LABOR DEPARTMENT ACCOUNTS FOR THAT. IN FACT, USING THAT TWISTED LOGIC YOU HAVE TO USE OLD PEOPLE/MENTALLY ILL ETC.. WHO PERFORM SERVICES. IN FACT THESE DAYS CONVICTS DO LITTLE OR NOTHING IN THE FORM OF LABOR. ACTUALLY, THEY HAVE LIBRARIES AND WEIGHT ROOMS. THE TRUTH IS EUROPE HAS SKY HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT RATES COMPARED TO THE US. AND SO TO NEGATE THIS EMBRASSING FACT THIS GARBAGE ABOUT PRISON IS BASICALLY MADE UP.
Comment by DAVE — Tuesday, June, 21, 2005 @ 13:01:pm
OH YES CRIME HAS FALLEN BECAUSE OF SENTENCING IN THE LAST DECADE AFTER PEAKING IN THE EARLY 1990S.
Comment by DAVE — Tuesday, June, 21, 2005 @ 13:03:pm
Never trust anyone who types all caps.
Comment by JET — Sunday, June, 26, 2005 @ 20:56:pm