Last Friday, The New York Times publicized some frightening information: 1 out of every 100 American adults is currently incarcerated.
The report, conducted by the Pew Center on the States, asserts that 1.6 million adults are in federal prisons and an additional 700,000 are thumb-twiddling in local jails. The United States boasts the largest population of imprisoned people worldwide; China is second on the list.
When did going to prison become as common as a trip to Acapulco?
But the more I thought about it, the easier it was to put these figures into context.
First, the United States is cowboy culture. We are “bad boys,” invaders, and defiers of the U.N. It’s no wonder our prison population rose by 25,000 in the last year alone.
I googled the highest-grossing movies of 2007: Spider-Man 3, Transformers, and Shrek 3 collectively earned about one billion dollars. (The Shrek threequel wasn’t that violent, but instead a direct indication of our embarrassingly low cultural standard.) We are inundated by violence and consequently desensitized to it.
“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and its various takeoffs placed in three of the top ten most-watched TV shows of 2006. (”Monday Night Football,” “Criminal Minds,” “Dancing With the Stars,” and the poll results from “Dancing” fill up another four spots). Once again, violence, crime, and an embarrassing indication of our cultural standard.
Akon, one of the most popular hip-hop artists of the moment, begins many of his songs with a jail cell clank and the word “convict.” “Locked Up” and “Smack That” (prison jargon?) were two of his hit singles. On that note, one in 15 black men are imprisoned.
And Paris “Jailbird” Hilton is the sixth most-searched celebrity.
Nevertheless, only one out of 355 white women and one out of 100 black women are in the slammer. This is probably due to the fact that women a) get their respective men to pay for competent lawyers and b) learn how to cry persuasively at a very young age. Remember, prison’s tough — the media simply paints a caricature of it.
As Nancy Reagan once said, the slammer is not glamor.
Tags: Akon, crime, Nancy Reagan, slammer not being glamor, violence
An RSS feed of The Spin is available
March 4th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Actually ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is the American of a British invention, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’- so it’s our low cultural standard, really. Other programmes mentioned in the article ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is linked to include American Idol and Deal or No Deal, also British inventions. So, for these three shows I would like, on behalf our my nation, to say ” Sorry, our bad.”
March 4th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Or perhaps it is that women commit fewer crimes (which, in fact, they do)? Also, I would look first to the legal reasons (such as more strict drug laws) for higher rates of incarceration in this country before I blame Akon and “Dancing With the Stars.” (What’s wrong with dancing, anyway? Haven’t we learned our lesson from “Save the Last Dance” and “Step Up?” A little dancing keeps potential gangbangers from a life of crime and teen pregnancy…or something.)
March 4th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
You pay the time. It’s a simple as that.
Why don’t the liberals, instead of feeling sorry for criminals who like as not have hurt innocent people or caused profound suffering, empathize with the victims instead?
And oh, by the way, please don’t give me the bullshit of “it’s society’s responsibility,” or, “the elite are somehow at fault,” or, “we must reform our legal system,” or, “they’re deranged from their family conditions or impovrished childhoods, or hooked on meth, or had an abusive parent, or a jealous of their neighbors.” Grow up, take some responsibility, and demand that our bad apples do so as well. It’s no one’s fault but their own. This isn’t second grade, people.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Umm, Shrek 3 was a hit worldwide — in fact brought in more money world-wide than here in the states. Same goes for the other movies. How is this an “embarrasing indication of our cultural standard” when they are just as popular in other cultures? You make some sweeping (and, frankly, ridiculous) generalizations here. Why is it you are so ashamed to be an American?