Quote:
Originally Posted by Gozer
-how do international incarceration rates (like the one's in the graph I started the thread with) support the assertion that private prisons and incarceration rates are unrelated? Because more poor people get arrested there too?
-I do not oppose improving the educational system, and I am puzzled that you think I do. Do you think it's one-or-the-other?
-"life of crime" is not the factor you think it is. If possessing pot is "a life of crime" then there are a lot of criminals on CP alone.
Finally, you argue that there is racism in the economy, yet continue to harp that there is no racial element when excessively punishing the poor.
How do you harmonize those arguments?
|
You have one data point of a country with private prisons, and argue that the private prisons are increasing incarceration. I think it's just as likely that the US has private prisons BECAUSE they incarcerate so many people. Correlation doesn't prove causation.
As to your next point, you need to read what I'm replying to. I was responding to your assertion that more white people should go to jail. My point was that if the problem is too many black guys in jail, you don't fix that problem by incarcerating more white people. You fix it by solving the underlying causes of that incarceration, which is sub-optimum educational and economic outcomes of Blacks in the US.
I never said there was racism in the economy, I said certain minority groups are economically disadvantaged. That could be a result of historical racism. If your parents were illiterate during the Crowe era, it's much harder to become a professional than if your parents were university educated in a leafy suburb. I'm not saying racism doesn't exist (in the economy or the justice system) since those are all populated by imperfect people. I'm saying your arguments massively overstate the impact of 2 elements: racism in the justice system and the influence of private prisons.
The over-zealous focus on those elements reduce the credibility of the rest of your arguments.