From [HERE] The U.S. has the world’s highest incarceration rate, with Department of Justice data showing more than 2.2 million people are behind bars, equal to a city the size of Houston.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows that, with a rate of 730 people per 100,000, the U.S. jails a higher proportion of its citizens than any other country, according to data from the International Centre for Prison Studies, an independent research center associated with England’s University of Essex.
More than 60% of the people in prison are now racial and ethnic minorities. For Black males in their thirties, 1 in every 10 is in prison or jail on any given day. These trends have been intensified by the disproportionate impact of the "war on drugs," in which two-thirds of all persons in prison for drug offenses are people of color. [MORE] Recently, billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson said the American drug policy is a “war on black people” and results in the jailing of too many African Americans. [MORE]
The table below shows that, at a rate of 730 people per 100,000, the United States jails more of its citizens than any other country in the world, according to data from the International Centre for Prison Studies, an independent research center associated with the University of Essex in England. [MORE]
| Country | Per 100,000 citizens | Percent female | Percent children | Number of prisons | Occupancy level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. | 730 | 8.7% | 0.4% | 4575 | 106% |
| St. Kitts and Nevis | 649 | 0.9% | 2.3% | 2 | 210% |
| Seychelles | 641 | 5.1% | 1.3% | 1 | 81% |
| Virgin Islands (U.S.) | 539 | 2.7% | 0.2% | 3 | 61% |
| Rwanda | 527 | 15% | 0.4% | 14 | 103% |
| Georgia | 514 | 5.1% | 0.7% | 17 | 101% |
| Cuba | 510 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Russia | 502 | 8.2% | 0.9% | 1029 | 91% |
| Anguilla (U.K.) | 480 | 2.8% | 0.0% | 2 | 160% |
| Virgin Islands (U.K.) | 460 | 5.0% | 3.0% | 1 | 98% |
| Belarus | 438 | 6.8% | 0.7% | 34 | 97% |
| El Salvador | 425 | 10% | 0.0% | 27 | 254% |
| Bermuda (U.K.) | 417 | 5.4% | 6.1% | 4 | 64% |
| Azerbaijan | 407 | 1.9% | 0.1% | 53 | 133% |
| Belize | 407 | 2.6% | 4.6% | 1 | 67% |
| Grenada | 402 | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1 | 195% |
| St. Vincent and the Grenadines | 389 | 3.5% | 17.2% | 2 | 212% |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 387 | 4% | 3.3% | 1 | 235% |
| Cayman Islands (U.K.) | 385 | 5.2% | 1% | 3 | 108% |
| Barbados | 377 | 3.5% | 1.8% | 1 | 83% |
| Bahamas | 371 | 1.8% | N/A | 1 | 112% |
| St. Maarten (Netherlands) | 369 | 7.4% | 1.1% | 1 | 104% |
| Panama | 366 | 7.2% | 2.3% | 22 | 178% |
| Dominica | 356 | 2.1% | 2.9% | 1 | 81% |
| Palau | 348 | 5.5% | 5.5% | 1 | N/A |
“The model is, if you build it they will come,” said Daniel D’Amico, a professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans. “Because we have all these prisons and all of these other resources funneled into our criminal justice system, we have this ability to enforce things that would otherwise be unenforceable.”
“That includes the drug war, but it’s also including everything from the Martha Stewart types to immigration policies,” D’Amico said. “The scope of things that are now criminal in corporate law is exponentially higher than it was merely twenty years ago.”
The U.S. also leads the world in the number of prisons in operation at 4,575, more than four times the number of second- place Russia at 1,029. U.S. states spent $52 billion to construct and operate those prisons in 2011, more than quadruple the $12 billion spent in 1987, according to data from the Pew Center on the States.