Anonymous A started this discussion 15 years ago#12,391
1. Three "strikes" and you get life in jail. Even for trivial crimes, Leandro Andrade is serving 2 consecutive life sentences for shoplifting 9 video tapes with a value of $153.
2. 1% of Americans are in jail (2.3million). On a per capita bases this equates to twice as many in South Africa, more than 3 times Iran and 6 times China's prison population.
3. No society in history has imprisoned as many people as America.
4. 1 in 30 men aged 20-34 in in prison.
5. 1 in 9 black males are in prison.
6. There are more 17 year old black males in prison than in college.
7. 5% of the world are American...25% of all prisoners are American.
8. America prohibits importing goods made through forced labor or prisoners...YET...American prisons produce 100% of all US military helmets, ammunition belts and bullet proof vests, 93% of domestically-used paints, 36% of all home appliances and 21% of all office furniture, which allows America to compete with factories in Mexico.
10. You get solitary confinement if you refuse to work.
Land of the free? I don't think so. You've simply repackaged the slave trade.
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 4 minutes later, 6 minutes after the original post[^][v]#222,655
> 1% of Americans are in jail (2.3million).
The US has a population of 307,006,550 according to the 2009 census, so in actuality less then 1% of America is in prison.
Checkmated.
Falco !PZmcClOUDk joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 7 minutes after the original post[^][v]#222,656
yeah it sounds plausible but we need some proof sir.
sluggy joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 18 minutes later, 26 minutes after the original post[^][v]#222,668
I know most of this points are true. I didn't know about the forced labor. I thought you were given the option to work to make a small amount of money.
[^_^] !IOdbnXsKDk joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 32 minutes later, 58 minutes after the original post[^][v]#222,679
You don't have to work. You actually get paid also.
Anonymous H joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 3 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#222,683
> 3. No society in history has imprisoned as many people as America.
Soviet gulags imprisoned more than 50 million.
Wait, this thread is already over.
Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 18 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#222,687
Anonymous I joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 17 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#222,693
> Three "strikes" and you get life in jail. Even for trivial crimes
lolno. stopped reading
[^_^] !IOdbnXsKDk replied with this 15 years ago, 3 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#222,694
@previous (I)
That's only true in California iirc, maybe other states have adopted it as well? I know federally they have a 'career criminal' enhancement on sentences, but that's only if its the same crime committed three or more times, again, iirc.
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 5 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#222,697
@previous ([^_^] !IOdbnXsKDk)
Florida has a 10-20-Life law where if you possess a gun while committing a crime it's 10 years mandatory, if you fire the gun it's 20 years mandatory, and if you injure someone or kill them it is mandatory 25 to life sentence.
[^_^] !IOdbnXsKDk replied with this 15 years ago, 38 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,720
@previous (Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ)
I have one fed felony, the seccond was dropped because I was found innocent in the charges. But it had a mandatory minimum of two. That was Aggravated Identity Theft.
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ replied with this 15 years ago, 14 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,744
@previous ([^_^] !IOdbnXsKDk)
Mandatory minimums are so fucking stupid. Taking away judicial discretion seems like the legislature is tying to bypass the judiciary.
[^_^] !IOdbnXsKDk replied with this 15 years ago, 7 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,754
I'm high, I can't allow myself to think of things like that anymore. But yeah, that's a cop out because i don't know the correct labels for politics. Is Communist left? I called my mom a Communist (by saying it was very Communist of her to feed me dinner. I was weird on those prescriptions I guess.) And she got all mad. I guess she likes the GOP or whatever? Are they the ones who's candidates we're hearing mostly about now?
I literally can't vote anymore. So i don't even think about what's politically going on. Untill recently. I started smoking weed again.
This was an amazing birdwalk and i have no idea why I rambled on about randomness in this thread.
I really loved your short story, that's what I wanted to say.
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ replied with this 15 years ago, 4 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,761
Triptych !LightPenis replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,775
@previous (L) > the debates about the population size of GULAG failed to arrive to generally accepted figures, wide-ranging estimates have been offered
Meowth !RKehomzmKo joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,778
[^_^] !IOdbnXsKDk replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,781
@previous (Meowth !RKehomzmKo)
Typing all that actually brought me back down. I was all 'woah' lol
Meowth !RKehomzmKo replied with this 15 years ago, 30 seconds later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,782
@previous ([^_^] !IOdbnXsKDk)
Lol. It feels like I keep going up.
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,784
I keep seeing gulag and think of goulash. Hungarian goulash. Fucking goulash is good.
Anonymous L replied with this 15 years ago, 38 seconds later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,785
@222,775 (Triptych !LightPenis) > Analysis of the official GULAG statistics by Western scholars immediately demonstrated that, despite their inconsistency, they do not support previously published higher estimates.
> These data allowed scholars to conclude that during the period of 1928-53, about 14 million of prisoners passed through the system of GULAG labour camps and 4-5 passed through the labour colonies.
(Edited 1 minute later.)
Triptych !LightPenis replied with this 15 years ago, 2 minutes later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,788
@previous (L)
Maybe I'm just braindead, but...what's that signify?
Meowth !RKehomzmKo replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,789
@previous (Triptych !LightPenis)
Signify. To "Be an indication of." Also, to "Be a symbol of; have as meaning."
Triptych !LightPenis replied with this 15 years ago, 47 seconds later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,790
Meowth !RKehomzmKo replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,791
@previous (Triptych !LightPenis)
Rofl. I feel like a robot.
Anonymous L replied with this 15 years ago, 12 seconds later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,792
@222,788 (Triptych !LightPenis) > more than 50 million... sounds about right
> less than 20 millions including non-GULAG labor colonies
You were very, very wrong.
Triptych !LightPenis replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,794
@previous (L)
I know. If you look at that chart in the Wikiped link, there's Solzhenitsyn who estimated there were 50 million. That's what I was going off of. ._.
Meowth !RKehomzmKo replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,795
@previous (Triptych !LightPenis)
I get that a lot.
Triptych !LightPenis replied with this 15 years ago, 54 seconds later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,798
@previous (Meowth !RKehomzmKo)
You can be a real boy if you find the blue fairy.
Meowth !RKehomzmKo replied with this 15 years ago, 45 seconds later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,799
@previous (Triptych !LightPenis)
It'll come one day.
Triptych !LightPenis replied with this 15 years ago, 49 seconds later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,801
@previous (Meowth !RKehomzmKo)
But the blue fairy...
Anonymous L replied with this 15 years ago, 2 minutes later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,805
@222,794 (Triptych !LightPenis)
And he was wrong. Stop spreading misinformation. Please don't lecture people on subjects of which you have no knowledge!
Triptych !LightPenis replied with this 15 years ago, 28 seconds later, 3 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,806
Anonymous C replied with this 15 years ago, 8 hours later, 13 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,910
@222,833 (N)
Well that's probably true, because how many 17-year-olds are in college? It's like saying there are more 40-year-old white men in prison than in high school. Of course that would be true.
Homestar !RUNNERV7vk replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 13 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,912
@previous (C)
Yeah I keep forgetting that college means university over there.
SQUARED :3 !L.....AlN. joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 26 minutes later, 13 hours after the original post[^][v]#222,918
grey !C.MxxuCiTo joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 4 minutes later, 18 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,029
Nearly all of those are incorrect, and some are outright distortions of the truth. If there is something which is disagreeable to you, which incarceration in this county certainly is to me, why on Earth would they need to lie in order to get the point across? Oh, because it's TV...
1) The 3 strikes law is not US law, it's a measure that some states have enacted. And, in most states (all of them except California, I believe) it refers to three serious felonies, not just any random crime. In California, it's still 3 felonies, but not necessarily serious felonies.
Normally, stealing $200 worth of videotapes wouldn't be a felony, but Leandro Andrade had already been convicted of numerous crimes (including burglary and escape from prison) and 2 of those were felonies. They decided to make his petty theft charge a felony charge of "petty theft with prior convictions," and since the videotapes were stolen in two different thefts (weeks apart) he received 25 years to life for each charge. 50 years to life, which is very different from saying two life sentences.
Basically, if he committed both thefts on the same day, even with his laundry list of arrests and jail stints, he would have been out of jail in 25 years.
2) The US population is 307 million, so if 2.3 million are in jail, that is definitely not 1%.
3) That's because many societies in history just killed them.
4, 5) Who knows, not gonna bother.
6) I can do better than that. There are almost no 17 year old black males in college. Nor white males, nor Asian males, etc. That's because the US doesn't have the same education system as you guys. To us, College = University, which everyone (unless you are exceptionally gifted) starts when they are around 18.
I seriously have never seen a more blatant attempt to lie with the statistics than that in my life, and i know a lot about how to lie with statistics.
7) This is the first one that is verifiable, even though they round up from 23.5% to 25%. Would they have rounded down if it were 21.5%, or would they have said the exact stat? That's how you decide whether they are just giving round numbers, or trying to misrepresent the truth.
8) Forced labor.
9) 100%? Nonsense. There was a company in Texas which used federal prison labor to produce some (not all) military helmets, and they were recalled because they were crappy. As far as I know, that company ceased production.
Also, it's not forced labor ... unlike the child labor goods that every country imports and all people buy.
9) I don't know if i buy this one, especially considering the track record, so far. Those stats seem to come from globalresearch.ca, which is a weirdo conspiracy site. In that article, they also did a pretty good job of lying with stats. At the end they mentioned that 97% of federal inmates were convicted of non-violent crimes. Well, yeah, the federal system is for stuff like wire fraud, etc. The remaining 3% are foreign terrorists, or people who did something violent in federal jurisdiction (like a post office).
10) Considering only about 100,000 inmates are employed for this stuff, and there are 2.3 million inmates that would mean 2.2 are in solitary. Of course, it's just not true.
Was this all really on QI?
grey !C.MxxuCiTo double-posted this 15 years ago, 16 seconds later, 18 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,030
I can copypasta too faggort.
Anonymous H replied with this 15 years ago, 2 hours later, 21 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,170