[lbo-talk] Minority Report (was Southern vs. Northern violence)

[Doug Henwood]

On May 11, 2007, at 10:48 AM, Michael Smith wrote:


> Lynching is an amateur sport in the South; in the North it has been
> professionalized and is taken care of by the police.

Uh, no region beats the South at jailing and executing people. If you  
rank states by their death row populations, 5 of the top 10 are  
alumni of the Confederate States of America (marked in the tables  
below with an asterisk); if you rank them by incarceration rates, 6  
of the top 10 are ex-CSA. Not a bad showing for just 11 states. The  
South's incarceration rate is 80% higher than the Northeast's.  
Original data at <http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/toc_6.html>.

death row population, January 2007

1      California          660
2      Florida*            397
3      Texas*              393
4      Pennsylvania        226
5      Alabama*            195
6      Ohio                191
7      North Carolin       185
8      Arizona             124
9      Georgia*            107
10     Tennessee*          107
11     Louisiana*           88
12     Oklahoma             88
13     Nevada               80
14     South Carolin        67
15     Mississippi*         66
16     Missouri             51
17     Kentucky             41
18     Arkansas*            37
19     Oregon               33
20     Indiana              23
21     Idaho                20
22     Virginia*            20
23     Delaware             18
24     Illinois             11
25     New Jersey           11
26     Kansas                9
27     Nebraska              9
28     Utah                  9
29     Washington            9
30     Connecticut           8
31     Maryland              8
32     South Dakota          4
33     Colorado              2
34     Montana               2
35     New Mexico            2
36     Wyoming               2
37     New York              1
38     New Hampshire         0

CSA/top 10                   5

incarceration rate
sentenced prisoners per 100,000 population, 2005

        U.S.                491

        northeast           298

        midwest             383

        south               539

        west                431

1      Louisiana*          797
2      Texas*              691
3      Mississippi*        660
4      Oklahoma            652
5      Alabama*            591
6      Georgia*            533
7      Missouri            529
8      South Carolin       525
9      Arizona             521
10     Florida*            499
11     Michigan            489
12     Arkansas*           479
13     Nevada              474
14     Idaho               472
15     Delaware            467
16     California          466
17     Virginia*           464
18     Kentucky            459
19     Colorado            457
20     South Dakota        443
21     Tennessee*          440
22     Alaska              414
23     Ohio                400
24     Wyoming             400
25     Maryland            394
26     Indiana             388
27     Wisconsin           380
28     Connecticut         373
29     Montana             373
30     Oregon              365
31     North Carolin       360
32     Illinois            351
33     Hawaii              340
34     Pennsylvania        340
35     Kansas              330
36     New York            326
37     New Mexico          323
38     New Jersey          313
39     Iowa                294
40     West Virginia       291
41     Washington          273
42     Utah                252
43     Vermont             247
44     Nebraska            245
45     Massachusetts       239
46     North Dakota        208
47     New Hampshire       192
48     Rhode Islanda       189
49     Minnesota           180
50     Maine               144

CSA/top 10                   7