How Many Folks Can We Imprison? We Don't Know Yet.

I was appalled to learn that 1 in every 136 people in America is behind bars. Is this the optimum number, or can we do better?

Let us assume for the sake of argument that it is undesirable to imprison everyone (except for the guards and rulers) and make them into slaves. Productivity would suffer, and the cost of maintaining the prisons would be prohibitive. Moreover, this would doubtless result in a crisis of legitimacy for the regime.

At some point, the number of prisoners will become disturbing to the “free” population, but this may be forestalled indefinitely by gradual increases in the prison population and demonizing deviants. One important limiting factor will be the burden of taxation on the not currently incarcerated portion of the population. At some point, they may chafe under the yoke and become unduly expensive to control. Long before then, however, the burden of taxation will result in decreased productivity and loss of revenue.

It will probably be necessary to divert funds from other programs into the criminal justice enterprise. Resources now spent on public schooling could go to prisons, and the schoolchildren could be put to work in the private sector jobs vacated by incarcerated subjects and by prison guards. Or we could just imprison them. Basic education could be provided in the prisons, and since most subjects will spend time in prison eventually, education will continue to be almost universally provided.

With a reshuffling of priorities and some serious brainwashing, we could possibly achieve the incarceration of 1 in 3 adult Americans. All old people could be incarcerated, so there would be no need for Social Security and Medicare. Anyone unemployed or on welfare would automatically report to prison. All homeless people could be imprisoned.

In the end, most prisoners would only be slightly deviant, and their prisons would not even need guards or walls. In fact, these prisoners could be permitted to move about freely and to maintain jobs and pay taxes. Their homes could be designated as prison cells and they would be considered on parole subject to their good behavior and tax paying.

Ultimately, everyone will be either pre-incarcerated, incarcerated or formerly incarcerated. That is, if we pull together and make the necessary sacrifices.