It turns out Florida is pretty damned good at letting the easily corruptible get into positions of power. Since 1976, the state's federal courts have handed out nearly 1,800 public corruption convictions, the fourth highest in the country. That's an average of 49 public corruption convictions a year, or about one a week for 35 years.
The findings, contained in a new report from the University of Illinois at Chicago, show that corruption is alive and well in the U.S.
New York led the country with a mind-boggling 2,522 convictions, followed by California and Illinois.
The report also shows that the Southern District of Florida doled out 970 public corruption convictions in the same period, the fifth most by any single district. More than 350 of them happened between 2001 and 2010.
The Middle District of Florida, which includes Orlando, ranked 12th overall with 585 convictions since 1976.
The report is based on data released by the Department of Justice and focuses mostly on Chicago -- a city that's really good at corruption. The best in the U.S., according to the authors.
Remember Blagojevich? That guy was fucking golden.
In order, the top ten states for convicting public officials are:
- New York
- California
- Illinois
- Florida
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- Ohio
- District of Columbia
- New Jersey
- Louisiana
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