Norton Sociology recently posted an image that illustrate differences in rates of imprisonment in a number of countries. Imprisonment rates are influenced by a number of factors — what is made illegal, how intense law enforcement efforts are, preference for prison time over other options, etc. The U.S. does not compare favorably, with 74.3 per 100,000 10,000 of our population behind bars (click here for a version you can zoom in on, and sorry for the earlier typo!):
Here’s a close-up of the breakdown of the U.S. prison population:
Via Urban Demographics.
Comments 18
Max Kingsbury — April 9, 2012
These infographics are useless if the text is too small to read.
Original here: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/7yrzlM6mG13_nSUbdXdFmfG36VpFacAZKXWEH5csCHU?feat=directlink
Kieron George — April 9, 2012
Why are asian americans and native americans so under represented in the jailed population?
MJS — April 9, 2012
I wonder what they're counting as "prison." Is it just traditional "cells with barred window" environments or also half-way houses, mandatory in-patient rehab facilities, and the like.
$ocraTTTe$ — April 9, 2012
They should have broken this down by gender as well as race.
What's up with India? — April 10, 2012
Thank you Max Kingsbury for providing a link with zooming options!
Did anyone notice any problems with the ways in which the prisoners are designed? For example, why India is the only country-box in which the prisoners in it have different colors of clothing? Is this an exoticizing way of inserting into the analysis the idea that Indian women would wear hyper colorful clothes in prison?
Also, I find it quite annoying that in the lower panel where it says "who gets to jail in the USA [...]" gender difference is once again symbolized through gender binaries: men wear pants, keep their legs open, their hands in their pockets and have short hair (i.e. "cool guys"); women wear skirts, keep their legs closed, their hands behind their back, and of course have long hair (i.e. "good girls").
Just because this is a demographic study of prison populations it doesn't mean that it should relay on colonial discourses and sexist narratives. Right?
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