Friday, October 19, 2007

Incarceration rates, Canada and International Comparisons

Canada has a relatively high rate of incarceration compared to many European countries, particularly northern Europe but we are far behind the US. The US has the highest rate in the world. Norway has a low rate of 59 just about half of ours. We are about the same as Australia.This material is old but from Canada Corrections:

1. Incarceration: An International Perspective

" In 2002, the incarceration rate in Canada was 116 per 100,000 population.
" Canada's incarceration rate is higher than the rates in most Western European countries but much lower than the United States, which had an incarceration rate of 702 per 100,000 general population in 2002.
" The incarceration rate decreased in Canada since the mid 1990's and has remained steady since 2000.

Now it seems that Harper and all those who have decided to be tough on crime would seem to want the rate to go up again. Harper probably would be happy if we could get much closer to the US. There are opportunities for builders of jails, the jail guard unions global prison corps.etc. The cost of incarceration is quite high:

Cost of Incarceration
The average annual cost of incarcerating an inmate in a federal institution for 2003/2004:

Men: $80,965
Women: $150,867

In order to create "efficiencies" the next steps are usually as follows if the US is any example:
i) privately run jails --already there are global companies involved.
ii) use of convict labor by corporations


THe final stage is the development of a large prison-industrial complex. In the US
the prisons are also a source of military recruitment.

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