Qs for "US Has most Prisoners in the World..."

1. What news organization created this article?

2. Define: incarceration, punitive, systemic

3. What three factors have led to the US having so many prisoners?

4. If there are about 225 million American adults, what percentage of them were on probation, on parole, or in prison in 2006?

5. If there are about 225 million American adults, what percentage of them were in prison or jail?

6. What country has the second most people in prison as a percentage of their population?

7. About how many time more people does the US have in prison than the average Western industrialized nation?

8. What type of crime in the US is the primary reason why we have so many more people in prison than most other nations?

9. Is it fair to say that the US is "soft on crime?"  Explain.

10. What percentage of people involved in prison or on parole were drug offenders?

11. Assuming that it costs $35,000 a year on average to keep a person in prison or on parole, how much money could we save if we let all of the US drug offenders go?

12. Why do you think the US has so much more crime than other countries that are similar to ourselves?

13. Given what you have learned from this article, should anything we do be changed?  What?  Why?