The United States is home to almost 5 percent of the world's population, yet it holds 22 percent of the world's prisoners.
The latest official statistics show that as of the middle of 2003, federal, state, and local facilities in America were holding 2,078,570 people.
If we add those on parole or probation, the figure jumps to 6.9 million.
For the last 30 years, the number of prisoners has increased annually. The incarcerated population in mid-2003 is a 2.9 percent rise over the prior year. Currently, one of every 75 men is in the clink.
Not only are the absolute numbers sky-high and ever-increasing, but the rate of imprisonment keeps climbing into higher nosebleed territory, too. In mid-2003, the US imprisoned 709 people out of every 100,000. A year and a half earlier, that figure was 686.
In its mammoth survey of imprisonment from 1974 to 2001, the Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded: “At yearend 2001, over 5.6 million U.S. adults had ever served time in State or Federal prison. If incarceration rates remain unchanged, 6.6% of U.S. residents born in 2001 will go to prison at some time during their lifetime.”
These numbers are not only the highest among industrialized nations, they're the highest in the world. The British government's definitive study “World Prison Population List” (fourth edition, 2003) gives the following top five prison nations as of the start of 2002:
US: 686 inmates per 100,000 people
Cayman Islands: 664 • Russia: 638 • Belarus: 554 • Kazakhstan: 522
In Cuba, the rate is approximately 297. Meanwhile, in lovely Iran, the incarceration rate is 229. The US's northern neighbor has a rate of 102, while South of the border, it's 156. England and Wales combined have a rate of 139. The figures are even lower in Scotland (126) and Northern Ireland (62). The rates for other nations that are interesting for comparison purposes:
Ukraine: 406 • South Africa: 404 • Israel: 153 • Spain: 126 • Australia: 116 • China: 111 Saudi Arabia: 110 • Germany: 96 • Italy: 95 • Uganda: 91 • France: 85 • Vietnam: 71 Japan: 48 • Nigeria: 34 • India: 28
So why does the US keep record numbers of its people in cages? The field of criminal justice is wrestling with that question, and the answers are complicated, but among the biggest factors are an ever-increasing number of laws, mandatory sentencing, and the so-called War on Drugs (drug offenders make up around half the federal prison population). 