Reposted from here
[Graph from here](World Incarceration Rates If Every U.S. State Were A Country (No other country even makes the first page))
That is 2021 data, here’s 2024
Huh, thanks for the update. Wonder what has happened in Cuba and El Salvador
Well the Cuba data is probably just made up, but El Salvador is easily the highest because President Bukele (self professed dictator of El Salvador, really a right wing crypto bro who is very popular) imprisoned an insane amount of men with any vague real or purported ties to gangs on bunk charges in an attempt to bring down the crime rate. It “worked,” but at the cost of imprisoning literally 1.6% of the population. Crazy to think that Louisiana is almost the same, but there’s no buzz about how horrible this is etc etc. 1% of all of Louisiana is in prison!
The Cuba data is from here they’re probably doing something like including people on probation, or in community service. 450 prisoners per institution is pretty high. US prisons are at 130% capacity and have about 400 per facility so those number just don’t make sense.
The China numbers are questionable too. Even with the low incarcerated rate, they somehow fit 3000 people in each institution (4000 if you include the Uhigurs which the database hints at but avoids sure to lack of reliable figures)
Can’t find much about the numbers of prisoners. But folks should check out the plan progressivo. (i had to use scihub to view) Most Cuban prisoners have short term stays (1-4 years). Are paid the same as civilians. Are watched and given political education by civilians who do the same work, live in the same quarters and eat the same food as the prisoners. There are lots of sports, with baseball being pretty popular. It kinda sounds closer to a summer camp with classes, paid farm work and camp counselors than what we think about prisons in the US.
I’ve read about that, and yeah I wouldn’t include those in prison statistics any more than id include people in rehab or a halfway house.
The biggest thing is being remunerated for labor at I believe the standard rate minus deductions for room and board.
Yeah the Cuba one was the one I found really weird.
Crazy to think that Louisiana is almost the same, but there’s no buzz about how horrible this is etc etc. 1% of all of Louisiana is in prison!
In bad country etc etc
That’s wild. I wonder what that means in terms of aggregate labor capacity when that much of it is idled. I assume that this burden mainly falls on women and children to maintain households afloat.
Edit: I meant for El Salvador. I know about US prison labor and convict leasing
Well the other key to remember is that labour isn’t idled; prison labour is very much a thing, and quite productive for the US economy!
They rent out prison labour in a wide array of industries. Yes, literally rent out.
