Sen. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) is facing widespread backlash for suggesting in a tweet that the United States has an “under-incarceration problem.”
Cotton’s comment came in response to a CNN article that discusses the impact of crime during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as well as the criminal justice system. The solution to our problems, according to Cotton, is to put more even people in jail in a country with the highest documented incarceration rate in the world.
“We have a major under-incarceration problem” that is “only getting worse,” the Arkansas Republican claimed. Twitter users were quick to fact-check the representative’s claim, noting that the U.S. has more people in jail than any other country.
We have a major under-incarceration problem in America.
And it's only getting worse. https://t.co/guYdE7aHdb
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) April 6, 2021
If you mean that Terrorist Trump should be in jail I agree with you
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) April 6, 2021
Man, what? We have 4% of the world population and over 20% of its prisoners. We also have the highest incarceration rate and the worst recidivism.
Maybe stop using corrections and policing as punishment and start pumping that money into rehabilitation, for people and community.
— Sara from Michigan (@SarafromMI) April 6, 2021
Com Totton is wrong, but I think he knows that. pic.twitter.com/3kAEoDFs5Z
— Reese(Marquis de Lafayette) (@JackJackington) April 6, 2021
We have the largest amount of incarcerated people in the world. How many black people do you want us to lock up until you’re satisfied?
— Chairman Wabbit🐰🏴🚩 (@ChairmanWabbit) April 6, 2021
Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert are some of the ones who should be incarcerated.
But why do I think Tom's thinking of poor people who aren't White?
— JRehling (@JRehling) April 6, 2021
sure pic.twitter.com/OZ9r9eGEyD
— Bes D. Socialist (@besf0rt) April 6, 2021
This is the worst take ever. But I'm grateful for any Tweets in which you reveal the darkness that I know is always right below the surface. Just sickens me that you're in a position of influence over other Americans.
— Samuel Perry (@socofthesacred) April 6, 2021
— Rhonda Harbison (@RonnieMotes8) April 6, 2021
Everyday, Republican Senators one up one another with the dumbest idiotic Tweet.
They are competing for the most insensitive POS in Washington.
— Andrew Goss 👊USAF👊 (@Goss30Goss) April 6, 2021
Wtf is under-incarceration? Is that when prison contactors complain they have too many empty beds?
— ALL I WANTED WAS A PEPSI (@PaulieTweetz) April 7, 2021