It’s an undisputed fact that the United States is the incarceration capital of the world. Despite hosting only 4.4 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. feeds, clothes, and houses nearly 22 percent of the world’s prisoners, or more than two million people. While violent victimization rates are comparable to other advanced Western nations — and crime rates have declined over the last several decades — the U.S.’s incarceration rate far outstrips any other nation on the planet. In fact, individual states surpass dozens of other countries in prisoners per capita; Louisiana alone imprisons its residents at a higher rate than Iran, China, or Germany.
[For more of this story, written by Jared Keller, go to https://psmag.com/how-many-ame...722277163#.6qtbsmyxm]
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