The US political prisoner population

[madmon]

is the highest of any nation in the world, probably the highest in all history. Yet, the MSM freaks out when there's a single political prisoner taken by one of our Orwellian enemy states.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/world/middleeast/28saberi.html?hpw

You can safely say that most federal prisoners are political prisoners of some sort. Either that or they're illegal immigrants who for some reason are being housed in the federal prison system instead of merely booted to the other side of the border. What a farce our federal government is.

 

[madmon]

Sorry, I noticed that this topic is already covered here, but slightly differently.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=190134

I think the point is that pointing the finger at Iran and other countries is just a red herring for people to think that some how we're free because Uncle Hussein says we are.

 

[Zippyjuan]

How many political prisoners are there in the US? How many in other countries?

 

[madmon]

The US federal prison population is over 200,000. I doubt there is any other nation that has that many political prisoners. It may sound like hyperbole to claim that most federal prisoners are political prisoners, but I think not. Here are some examples:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=137477

Why should we have a federal prison system at all? The only purpose it serves is to further the immoral cause of a massively invasive and constitutionally illegal federal bureaucracy. They're political prisoners, almost all of them.

It's important to understand that fascism is here, right now, alive and well in the United States. It's not a hypothetical conspiracy theory. It's here. It certainly is for the hundreds of thousands of people unjustly imprisoned by the federal government, and the millions more in state prisons who are there for outrageous things like drug offenses and other non-violent crimes.

It's a big portion of our population and they're being severely oppressed. We have the highest prison population of any country on earth, yet we claim to be the "land of the free." How does that work?

 

[Vessol]

Last time I heard it was 5% of the population which is fucking ridiculous. Especially considering 50%ish are in only for non-violent drug charges, blame the war on drugs. I'm all for locking up murderers, rapists and other violent offenders away for a long time or for life, but the drug war is causing tons of money to be wasted to lock up non-violent offenders and to wage a unwinnable "war".

 

[Zippyjuan]

Prisioners are not necessarily political prisioners. How many political prisoners does the US have and how many are held in other countries? Are you claiming that we have 200,000 political prisioners?

The US federal prison population is over 200,000. I doubt there is any other nation that has that many political prisoners.

 

[mellamojuana]

Folks, would it help us all to agree on a definition of "political prisoner" so we can discuss the same thing? I'm into this subject. Period.

 

[Dr.3D]

Folks, would it help us all to agree on a definition of "political prisoner" so we can discuss the same thing? I'm into this subject. Period.

Well, is the so called "war on drugs" a political problem? If it is, then all of the people in prison for drug offenses are political prisoners.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Amnesty International uses a very narrow definition of political prisoners- referring to them as "prisoners of conscience". http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/prisoners-of-conscience/page.do?id=1011626

"Prisoners of conscience" are men, women or children imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs or because of their race, gender or other personal characteristics. Many have never been charged with a crime. Amnesty seeks the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience

If a person blows up a bank because they don't like the Fed should they be considered a political prisoner or a person who destroyed property? There was a legitimate reason this person could be put into jail. They were treated no differently from anybody else who would blow up a bank.

 

[ronpaulhawaii]

Amnesty International uses a very narrow definition of political prisoners- referring to them as "prisoners of conscience". http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/prisoners-of-conscience/page.do?id=1011626http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/prisoners-of-conscience/page.do?id=1011626


If a person blows up a bank because they don't like the Fed should they be considered a political prisoner or a person who destroyed property? There was a legitimate reason this person could be put into jail. They were treated no differently from anybody else who would blow up a bank.

This is quite a topical topic for me. I look forward to watching this discussion.

I think the OP is right; isn't there just a short list of crimes that the feds can legally prosecute? It may well be possible to define the vast majority of federal prisoners "Political", in that sense...

More importantly; Is the usurpation of the criminal justice system, by the feds, evidence of fascism? For certain, prisons have become big-business; and if the definition of fascism is the marriage of business and government, what better example do we have?

(Hence the upcoming bicycle ride, from the Statue of Liberty to Alcatraz, and interest in this thread, I'm thinking a hand-out on this issue might work well..)

Along those lines, I have ethical concerns regarding publicly traded corporations running prison systems. It is obvious that much of the problem, with the burgeoning population, is the duty to increase profits and marketshare for shareholders, I wonder what the anarcho-capitalists solution is?