Jail vs. Execution

The Bernie Sanders crowd is sending around a meme that looks like this:

While it is true that we incarcerate more people than China (2.2 million vs. 1.7 million) while having only one-fourth China's population, the meme fails to account for executions. Let's compare the execution rate for all the countries in the world that still perform executions (three columns on the right) versus the incarceration rate for all the countries in the world that still perform executions (two columns on the left). Both data sets are sorted highest to lowest:

Country	Total executed	(Min) Per Million		Jail rate	Country
	(2014)[4]	People (2014)		(inmates per 100,000 pop)
Equatorial Guinea	9	11.567		????	Somalia
Iran	289+	3.707		????	Palestine
Saudi Arabia	90+	2.925		698	United States
North Korea	50+	2.079		600	North Korea
Iraq	61+	1.701		306	Belarus
Jordan	11	1.665		290	Iran
Somalia	14+	1.309		269	Taiwan
Yemen	22+	0.881		229	United Arab Emirates
China	1,000+	0.7		220	Singapore
Sudan	23+	0.593		164	China
Palestine	2+	0.44		161	Saudi Arabia
Singapore	2	0.366		161	Malaysia
Belarus	3+	0.317		154	Vietnam
Taiwan	5	0.213		145	Jordan
Afghanistan	6	0.192		133	Iraq
Egypt	15+	0.173		132	Equatorial Guinea
United States	35	0.11		76	Egypt
United Arab Emirates	1	0.106		74	Afghanistan
Malaysia	2+	0.066		53	Yemen
Pakistan	7	0.038		50	Sudan
Vietnam	3+	0.033		49	Japan
Japan	3	0.024		43	Pakistan

As can quickly be seen, Equitorial Guinea has the highest execution rate, at 11.567 per million, while the US has the highest incarceration rate, at 698 per 100,000.

But, in terms of execution rates, the US is at a paltry 0.11 persons executed per million, while the Chinese execute seven times as many at 0.7 per million. 

Only Japan and Pakistan have both low incarceration and low execution rates. Most of the remaining countries balance being high on one list with being low on the other list. Equitorial Guinea, for example, has a very high execution rate, but a relatively low incarceration rate. 

So, we could reduce the incarceration rate the same way China does - we could execute many of our criminals. I'm not at all a fan of capital punishment. It kills many people who are actually innocent, it does not account for the fallibility of the cops and the courts. Increasing executions is a ridiculous "solution." Worse, I somehow suspect that solution will not satisfy Bernie supporters.

If Bernie really wanted to make the United States look bad, he should compare our incarceration and execution rates to that of Pakistan. Pakistan - perceived by most Americans as a backwater, violent Muslim nation - is low on both lists. On the other hand, we don't have Pakistan's mob violence or murder rate. Pakistan's murder rate, for instance, is 7.7 per 100,000, while America's is only 3.3 per 100,000. If we cut out the 6% of  the US population that commit half the murders in America, America's murder rate would be around 1.6, very low indeed.

But, that having been said, the incarceration rate is something to be concerned about. If America is the land of justice, that is, if most American prisoners really belong in prison, then Americans really aren't very nice people. On the other hand, if Americans really are essentially nice people, then we have a serious problem with our justice system. If nothing else, we should contemplate the fact that, when it comes to capital punishment, we are on a rather short list of nations, and most of the other nations on that list are not very nice.

And this isn't the only short list of nasty countries the United States finds itself on. As Washington Post fact-checkers confirmed, the United States is also one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortion after 20 weeks’ gestation. The US joins China, North Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, Canada and Vietnam in this sorry distinction. So, America is not only fine with an incredibly high incarceration rate, we are also fine with executions, as long as the executions are carried out on very small children.

Bernie's meme may be somewhat misleading, but refuting it is not as pleasant as one would hope.