The US prison population has risen further, with one in 138 people now in jail, new official figures reveal.
There are more than 2.1 million US citizens in jail — more than in any other country, the Bureau of Justice Statistics says.
…It means the incarceration rate reached a record of 726 people per 100,000 residents.
This is from a BBC news story, drawing on a report from the Justice Policy Institute. They also provide this chart comparing incarceration rates in the U.S. to that of other countries:
- US: 726 people per 100,000
- UK: 142
- China: 118
- France: 91
- Japan: 58
- Nigeria: 31
A lot of the growth is from federal prisons, and a few states which haven’t yet learned how costly it is to keep people incarcerated.
