Reply #16: American prisons are some of the WORST in the industrialized world [View All]

[Julius Civitatus]

and international organizations (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International) have been monitoring and harshly criticizing the US for many years for this problem. It seems like most Americans are not aware of this fact, and live their lives unaware of the horrors taking place here. Among other things:

• The US has the largest percentage of its population in prison (2 million people) or through the justice system of all industrialized countries (except for Russia)
  
  
• The US has the least hygienic, most dangerous prisons of all industrialized nations (except for Russia)
  
  
• The US has the largest number of non-violent (drug-related) convicts imprisoned of all civilized nation (except for Russia). Non-violent convicts are usually thrown to the mix with highly violent, highly dangerous prisoners. The results are disastrous for society.

I guess our motto must be "hey! We are not as bad as Russia!"

If you have the guts or the stomach for it, read the Human Rights Watch report on the horrors of the American prison system:

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/prison/report.html