In this time of criticizing police and the American criminal justice system, I wanted to take a moment and appreciate what we get right, what we’re number one in.
Most Prisoners
One thing America’s learned is how to lock ‘em up. We lead the world in concurrent prisoners at 2.2 million, beating the second country, China, which sits at 1.5 million.
This is quite the accomplishment as China has the world's largest population. In fact, there’s four times as many residents in China as there is in the US. But that didn’t stop us from imprisoning 650,000 more people.
We’re so good at imprisoning people that we also have the highest per-capita rate of any country at 0.7 percent, meaning almost one out of every 100 Americans is behind bars.
Also, despite only having five percent of the world’s population, we comprise 21 percent of the world’s incarcerated population.
Remember, there can’t be any crime or poverty if everyone's incarcerated.
We Turn Up
After finishing your stint in prison, what better way to relax than some good ol’ drugs?
Turns out, America consumes the most marijuana and cocaine in the world. Not only that, we also have the most overdoses in the world.
And who cares? If the prisons don’t take ‘em out, the drugs sure will.
By the way, where do we get our drugs?
Well, we get at least 95 percent of our cocaine and most of our weed from South America, shipped through Mexico. But remember, we have no responsibility in South America’s crime and illegal immigration to the US.
And most importantly, under no circumstances should we legalize marijuana.
Highest Criminal Justice Expenditure
To keep this well-oiled machine going, ya gotta grease it with money. A lot of money. Actually, the most per-capita in the world.
Despite “saving money” with private prisons, we still spend the most per-capita on prisons. And we get to boast the most prisoners, so seems worth it to me.
We also spend the second-most on courts and the third-most on prosecutions. And as we all know, courts are not overloaded with cases and hear cases in an efficient, “speedy” manner.
Finally, we are one of the biggest spenders in terms of policing. After all, you gotta have someone to find the crooks to lock up.
And this investment is well worth it because we hear about police in the news every day, especially now. They must be doing a great job.
America’s widely known to have the best healthcare system in the world because we spend the most. For that same reason, I think America should also be known for having the world's the best criminal justice system.
