US Increases Its Margin as World Leader in Prisoners Per Capita
Once again the United States leads the world in prisoners per capita. After an encouraging decline in recent years, the US prison population rose 2.6% last year, meaning that 1 out of every 136 Americans are currently in prison. This means that 4.7% of AfricanAmerican males are now in prison. More striking, 11.9 percent of black males aged 25-29 are in prison! By far, the south leads the way (10 of the 14 states with the highest incarceration rates), with Louisiana leading the way at over one percent incarceration (1138 per 100,000). That said, the state with the highest rate of black incarceration was… in South Dakota. The greatest differential between black and white incarceration rates was in Iowa.
One thing that was lacking from the national reporting, however, is some comparative data to show just how abberant the American situation is. To put it in the proper perspective, consider this:
- The three largest prison populations exist in United States (2.2 million), China (1.55 million not counting those awaiting trial and those in “administrative detention”) and Russia (0.76 million).
- The United States has 738 prisoners per 100,000, whereas the next highest nations have 532 (tie with Belarus, Russia and Bermuda).
- There has been a huge growth in female incarceration in the mountain states and a large percentage of these offenders are in prison for crimes relating to the use of crystal meth.
- Some countries who are similar to the US economically and culturally, nevertheless have quite different rates of incarceration (per 100,000):
- Canada: 116
- Australia: 117
- New Zealand: 168
- England and Wales: 142
- Scotland: 132
- Northern Ireland: 72
- Ireland: 85
- Italy: 98
- France: 91
- Germany: 96
Sources (open in new windows):
- Abstract of Bureau of Justice Statistics report on “Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005″.
- Full report (PDF) of Bureau of Justice Statistics report on “Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005″ (actually a 13-page press-release, but it’s as detailed as most people would want).
- The Sentencing Project issues page on incarceration.
- Roy Walmsley, World Prison Population List (sixth edition), International Centre for Prison Studies.
- U.N. Urges Closure of Guantanamo Detention Facility
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technorati cosmos
May 22nd, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Consider this, our prison population equals the adult population of the state of Connecticut. Thank you for collecting the comparative data.
May 25th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
How about this – it is almost enough people to populate four states entirely, adults and children: Wyoming (506,529), Vermont (621,394), North Dakota (634,366), Alaska (655,435). Grand Total as of July 2004: 2.4 million.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:39 am
The USA Correctional Population-Those in prison,jail,on probation,parole,etc. is around 8 million and climbing.
Over 20% of the US population has been involved with the Correctional system at one time or another in their life, a staggering statistic along with the 8 million currently in the Correctional system.
Back in the 1970’s it was decided during the Cultural wars that the Social Benefits of the New Deal were to be reduced or eliminated and more prisons would be built so the US went from a Correctional Population of about 100 per 100,000(early 1970’s)to 2400 per 100,000(prison,jail,probation,parole,etc)another staggering statistic on the decline of Democracy and the building of a Dictatorship.
At the same time the last of the Tuition Free Colleges ended and Tuition along with almost all Cost of living measures began to rise rapidly while the wages became stagnant or began to decline outright.
When the US went off the Gold Standard in 1971, the US oil production peaked about the same time and then declined, Japan and Germany caught up to the us both Economically and Technologically then surpassed us, the Soviet System began to decline at the same time so other countries no longered needed the US for it’s Military and Markets to protect them from the Communist System the USA Empire began it’s long decline and this is accelerating as time goes by.
The US dollar for example was worth 4 times more then the Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen and The German D-mark now fast forward 38 years later the Swiss Franc is at Parity with the Dollar, The Japanese Yen is worth about 11 cents more and the Euro dollar is worth about 50% more then the US dollar, most other major currencies also have gained against the US dollar over this period of time.
Either the US standard of living as declined 450% since the early 1970’s or Europe, Japan and other countries have increased their standard of living-both are the correct anwer and now the US is in Rapid,steep decline while the Euro-Area for example is by far the largest Exporter, Creditor, World Investor which is reflected in the strength of the Euro. Basically the US economy is only half as strong as the Euroland economy while Europe has a much lower Rich-poor gap, the Gini-index is about 28 verses about 50 in the USA which has a very large Rich-poor gap.
So the Standard of living for those who did not come from money or worked during the Golden Years of the post world war 2 American Empire is much lower then in places like Germany.
When the economy Falters so does your Democracy, the two are directly tied together.
You can have a Concentration of wealth and power at the top or you can have a Democracy where the Nations Resources are shared and the Wealth/Power is spread out among the Population but you cannot have both.
One is a Dictatorship and the Other is a Progressive Democracy.