Andrew Sullivan links to sociologist Lisa Wade who notices a difference in the racial distribution between private prisons and public prisons. The goal here, it would seem, is to tie capitalism to white supremacy and racism. Wade writes:
This is a deeply unethical system and new research shows that, in addition to being disproportionately incarcerated, racial minorities and immigrants are disproportionately housed in private prisons. Looking at three states with some of the largest prison populations — California, Texas, and Arizona – graduate student Christopher Petrella reports that racial minorities are over-represented in private prisons by an additional 12%; his colleague, Josh Begley, put together [the above] infographic.
The infographic:
Via Sociological Images, Lisa Wade, Christopher Petrella
Given what we know about the demographic skew of violent criminals versus other types of criminals (more blacks and Hispanics commit more of it even compared to other types of crime), it’s important to find out what types of criminals are housed in private and public institutions.
At Business Insider, Joe Weisenthal did just that:
So the question is: How does the private prison population compare to the prison population as a whole?
It’s not that different. but it seems a bit more skewed towards violent offenders.
And his chart:
Via Joe Weisenthal, Barclays
According to Bureau of Justice statistics that Weisenthal links to, the criminal profiles of prisoners in these different types of prisons is relatively stark. It’s surprising that private prisons would be charged with housing violent criminals. You’d figure that a private company would opt for lower-risk prisoners, though perhaps there is more money to be made from scale by having consistent “customers” with longer sentences.
BJS
Violent criminals in private prisons made up about 52% of all prisoners. About 75% of private prisoners fell into the categories of robbery, assault, burglary, murder, kidnapping, and sexual offenses. Of those, burglary is not considered a violent crime. Around 36% of public prisoners are in jail for property or drug offenses (18% for property and 18% for drug). In public prisons, drug offenders make up 11% of total population and property offenders make up 14% (not counting burglary).
It would seem, even dropping imprisoned burglars, that there is a substantial difference in the offenses of the criminals housed at these different prison types.
The next question concerns the distribution of criminal offending within each racial group. If whites in prison are there for less violent crimes, then we’d expect a higher proportion of whites in institutions that tend to house less violent criminals. The data shows a difference here as well. According to the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, 49.5% of white prisoners were convicted of violent crimes. The ratio is 55.2% and 56.7% for blacks and Hispanics, respectively. For property and drug offenses, 38.4% of whites, 35.1% of blacks, and 31% of Hispanics are imprisoned for those types of crimes. These numbers seem to line up with the disparity reported in the initial infographic. A 5% difference in private-public imprisonment of minorities can mostly (or completely) be explained by differences in the distributions of the criminal profiles of the different races.
So the hit-job on private prisons – which is an attempt to tie capitalism to white supremacy – fails to make its case.
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As soon as they use the term “people of color” my Here Comes a Lie detector starts to blink ferociously.
Japanese Americans/ Korean American/ Chinese Americans are they people of color? Too pale? Colorless?
These types of things also neglect recidivism. A black or Hispanic is way more likely to be in the big house for a long list of past crimes, not as a first time offender. As such, their sentences get longer, so they are in there for more time, so they naturally over time become an increasingly large portion of the inmates at any given time.
What I always find hilarious is how Progressive dimwits will act as if all those NAMs are in prison because white cops just randomly round them up and toss them in. The reality is that untold numbers of NAM criminals get wrist slaps and never end up in jail at all because the jails are too damn crowded with them already. If everyone who deserved to be there was there, the skew would be even more NAM-centric than it is now.
This is why I’ve always advocated a Three Strikes You’re Out policy. That is, three crimes of whatever type and we kill you and bury you in a potter’s field.
Speaking of NAM’s who get off scott free for their crimes, make sure y’all tune in and watch the Sunday pulpit work of Reverend Ray Lewis this week. He’s quoting bible verses left and right nowadays.
Activism masquerading as reporting. Simple math deflates the argument, but the article is out there for all to read.
Peterike is onto something with the 3 strikes you’re out for good idea, but consider the full fledged propaganda campaign when “3 strikes” laws were enacted. The media did everything in their power to spotight how harmless offenses could count as one of the strikes and put people in jail forever. They used the exception to point out the problem of the rule. Hollywood even jumped into it with that Martin Lawrence movie about it. What progressives and the media forgot was that the law was to force harsher sentences ebcasue sentences for crimes had become so soft. It was a right wing rebellion from the awful effect of decades of leftwing judicial appointments.
Eh, the three strikes rule is stupid, just like Project Exile. Mandatory minimum sentencing is okay, but doesn’t actually target the root of the problem.
You want to actually change things, make sure you vote in judges who will consistently give tough sentences, or vote for representatives who will vote for or against judicial appointees on those criteria. For most of the country, that’s not palatable, since the guys who are tough on crime tend to have other views that are doubleplus ungood.
Also, bring back public shaming for petty crimes. A choice between jail time or a couple days in the stocks might help clear out some of the small fry from our overcrowded prisons.
The first study will be cited ad nauseum in academia. Weisenthal’s data? Not so much. Why complicate a good thing?
Jail is in essence “cruel and unusual”.
Said it before, saying it again. Punitive measures only fit by the hand.
In other words, you have to dole it. Or forget it.
Locking people up in a toilet cell, is bullshit.
Do not take someone’s time, their life.
Unless you want a criminal.
Here is a hypothetical question: If American prisons were segregated by race just like they are by sex, what would a sentence in an all-white prison be like for a guy like one of us?
Boredom, and eventually making friends with some of the smarter inmates? Peaceful reading of books? Occasional confrontation with a belligerent young asshole and perhaps a fair one-on-one fight?
That’s probably an overly romantic view. I’m sure they’d be somewhat worse than Scandinavian prisons, but not by a whole lot. Certainly it wouldn’t be viewed as the nightmarish rape factory that is now though.
No doubt the almost total elimination of white petty crime since the 70s is a result of DoC and not LE.
The current progressive goal is to let almost everyone out of prison much like they did in the 70s. They’ve greatly weakened sentences for violent criminals over the last 4 years.
The “analysis” could have stopped at ” California, Texas, and Arizona”.
Every time I see an article like this one I think about how practically no one will read your rebuttal. So often we have academics and journalists with elite pedigrees do something as disingenuous as comparing two percentages at face value and calling it a day, while efforts like yours are far rarer and get far less exposure. Sometimes I feel like leftists knowingly try to mislead people with such ridiculously poor reasoning just to taunt the few who possess the intuition to take a second look at the data and discover explanatory factors like the ones you found here.
My question above is innately premised on Kyle’s understanding that white Americans have becoming very lawful. I woudn’t, for example, want to be an average Russian or Ukrainian in their prison. Full-on sadism there, rapes and abuse of weaker inmates, no different than in their conscript army. Americans though, just don’t seem to have that feral sadism to them — hence my somewhat idealized but not too far off notion of an all-white American prison being OK.
From my time in Army basic training, I know what woudl fuck with me the most in a non-sadistic hypothetical prison environment — an inability to just go for a walk outside.
Here is a hypothetical question: If American prisons were segregated by race just like they are by sex, what would a sentence in an all-white prison be like for a guy like one of us?
Ten year long Dungeons and Dragons tournaments.
Americans though, just don’t seem to have that feral sadism to them
you sure ?
My question, “you sure ?” is smart ass but fucking hell, it is the question.
This race real politics comes down to, White Americans will emerge as such, or not. Feral sadism.
Do White Americans have a collective identity. I am a white american. What is my identity. And i am not setting up here for ridicule. My case is on display because it is so typical.
Who are white americans. There is this Russian chick who sells me beer and vodka, from the mall. She speaks English, and has a nice ass and blue eyes. Is she a white american. The owner of the store is Russian or something, very large framed person. A franchise liquor license costs a lot of money. He may have connections, or is that silly. He employs some jews at his store, too.
Po govoru, po shchute. No, not at all.
Ten year long Dungeons and Dragons tournaments.
Let us hope you mean advanced D&D.
There are two types of White Americans. There is Billy up country, and the forty niner out west.
Billy from the hills can be dark complected, and have a name like Parker or Kubic, or Brown. Big hands, always working, mister mechanical.
Out west is the self selected Nord, the ideal. The prospector, the surfer. Brad Pitt. More sensual and adventurous.
Billy from the hills can be dark complected
Traces of American Indian ancestry, with the proverbial “I’m 1/16th Cherokee”? Scots-Irish settlers in the Appalachia to my understanding had amicable relations with the local Indians. Also, North American Indians according to some theories have European blood from having conquered/mixed with the pre-Bering-crossing European settlers of the continent.
The somewhat swarthy look of some Appalachian whites is what I call “the Johnny Cash look.” It’s not at all like the Black Irish look.
This is basically American mythology. I’ve seen no conclusive proof of significant admixture between Native Americans and European-descended Americans even in Appalachia.
Johnny Cash was Scottish (there is no record of him having Native American ancestors) and this swarthy subtype still exists in parts of Scotland and north England and was commented on as far back as the Roman occupation. I’m not sure the source; there may be some Basque/Iberian population that settled Britain and some natives still exhibit these atavistic traits. Romani mitochondrial DNA has been found in the north of England as well from at least as far back the Norman Conquest.
For that matter there is a swarthy Germanic subtype as well (which is why afrocentrics think that Beethoven was black because he had a dusky complexion) and that may be some ancient Siberian or other steppes admixture, which is still extant in British Germanic peoples as well.