Honestly, not that surprising. It's hard to look at the American government's policy regarding crime and not see that they clearly want a lot of people in jail. The question was simply why. A prison-industrial complex with pseudo-slave labor -- take away actual slave labor and grant free men certain rights to prevent them being pseudo-slave labor, and they make sure the men aren't free before they make them into pseudo-slave labor. Makes a lot more sense than it should. *sigh*

do you have any other figures/research to dispute these numbers?

did you hear about the PA judge who wasd throwing kids in juvi at the drop of a hat before they figured out he had a stake in the prison company, lol.

USA imprisons more people than any other place on earth, by A LOT.

Yeah, no the numbers do seem to bear out Stephen Fry's claims. I never really doubted them, they were just shocking to hear.

This is truly shocking I think Great Britain should invade, I knew granting independance was a bad move. In this country (England) the average life sentance for a female murderer is only 7 years although we do lock up people for not having a TV licence. A TV licence is compulsory for anyone owning a TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh8ZrGhzJIM

That's an intriguing talk. Thanks Sicarius. Too bad it ends where it does. Certainly makes you a lot more cynical about people who promise to "get tough on crime" in their election platforms doesn't it? Not that I'd ever voted for anyone who wanted to get tough on crime myself.

Still it makes me really angry to know that Stephen Harper wants to import an American style prison system to Canada. I wish SOMETHING could be done to prevent it. Argh.

"More 17 year old African-American males in prison than in college?"

Well, no fucking duh! Most people are 18 when they graduate high schools. So I bet there are more 17 year old black men in prison than 17 year old people (male or female, caucasian or minority) in college. That's a no fucking brainer.

sure, draug, fail at basic english; why don't you?

I'm at work and can't watch the vid, so I have to go off the subject alone. And the subject clearly says there are more 17 year old black males in prison than in college. Again, that's a no brainer because 17 year olds are typically still in high school, not college. Basic English says whatever qualifiers are applied to the first are also applied to the second comparator. So the implication is that the ones in college are also 17 year old black males. Now if they mean more 17 year odl black males in prison than total black males in college, that is different. But it isn't what the subject says. My reading comprehension is fine. Is the ambiguity of the statement that is the problem.

Correction on my part, Mafia's post clearly stated that. But still, it was an ambiguous statement.

It's also kinda beside the point. That's only one of the many startling facts. That's a full 1% of the American population in prison. No society in history has imprisoned that large a proportion of its citizens. 1 in 30 men aged 20-34 is in prison for the population as a whole, but 1 in 9 black men aged 20-34 are in prison. Try talking that one away as obvious and not really very meaningful Draug.

@draug - it could be an English thing - in the UK kids leave at 16 to go to college (or sixth form) QI was for an English audience so I assume he meant there are more 17yo black kids in jail than in education

Yeah the numbers of incarcerated black men as a percentage of black men is fucking horrific. There are more black men in jail today than there were enslaved black men in 1850.

That number can't be true. There were 3.2 million slaves in 1850. I don't have the gender break-down, but since there are 841,000 black males incarcerated, I don't think your number could possibly be true. The number is highly misleading because there were 3.63 million total blacks in the US in 1850 while there are 39 million today.

Yeah I know there are more black people now than then, but just the same... 841,000....

Unfortunately we have to do with this data.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/yearend2010enforcementreport.pdf

These tables break down suspects by race according to how they are identified by victims of crimes.

race is a fiction, that said there are cultural/economic difference which lead to these statistics.

and yes draug, i'm pretty sure the 17 year olds comparison was to full-time education versus full-time imprisonment - at least i will give the benefit of the doubt there.

Would you care to dispute the statistics with some of your own?

No. I was just pointing out the ambiguity of not clarifying if he meant 17 year old black men in college, or all black men in college. I've no doubt there is a huge disparity. The economics of the inner city make college unfeasible and a life of crime nearly a forced upon requirement. Join a gang or become a victim of one, unfortunately. Until we address the economic inequity of rural, urban/inner city, and suburbs, we have no hope of turning the trend around.