Unjerked E33 Prisons Part 1

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 Unfortunately, the US is one of the highest in the world, superseded only by a handful of other countries.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

 

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