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Subject:
Incarceration in the Nation
DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT $200.
Anger grows at US jail population.
Third
World Traveler
- The United States has
25% of the global prison population, BBC News
reports.
- The jail population in
the United States is about 2 million.
- An explosion in inmate
numbers in recent years means that although the US makes up 5% of the total
global population, it now accounts for 25% of the world's prisoners.
- About 1.3 million
of the current jail population have been imprisoned for non-violent crimes,
usually drug offenses.
- According to CBS
News, states are more likely to lock up people for violent offenses than
for drugs. But the federal government is taking up the slack, with drug
crimes accounting for 59% of the increase in federal prison inmates.
- In France, the imprisonment
rate is about 85 per 100,000 persons. The European average is around 95.
- The U.S. imprisons 690
per 100,000, according to the International Center for Prison Studies at
King's College, London.
- The Wall Street Journal
reports that one in 32 U.S. adults ...[3%] was either behind bars or on
probation or parole in 2001, according to the Justice Dept. That represents
a 2.3% increase over 2000, to 6.6 million.
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