Reply #129: I believe the point was that incarceration rates show a preference for locking up certain races

[Gormy Cuss]

The Pew Center on the States compiled the information from Justice Department and Census Bureau statistics.

America's prison population has skyrocketed over the past quarter century. In 1982, 1 in 77 adults were in the correctional system in one form or another, totaling 2.2 million people.

The United States has 5 percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prison inmates, the center said.

The numbers vary widely by race and gender.

"Black adults are four times as likely as whites and nearly 2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control. One in 11 black adults -- 9.2 percent -- was under correctional supervision at year-end 2007," the report said. "