World Prison Population List

[survivor999]

-> Over 9 million people are held in penal institutions
throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees
(remand prisoners) or having been convicted
and sentenced. Almost half of these are in the
United States (2.09m), China (1.55m plus pretrial
detainees and prisoners in ‘administrative
detention’) or Russia (0.76m).

-> The United States has the highest prison
population rate in the world, some 714 per 100,000
of the national population, followed by Belarus,
Bermuda and Russia (all 532), Palau (523), U.S.
Virgin Islands (490), Turkmenistan (489), Cuba
(487), Suriname (437), Cayman Islands (429), Belize
(420), Ukraine (417), Maldive Islands (416), St Kitts
and Nevis (415), South Africa (413) and Bahamas
(410).

Full PDF including tables: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/world-prison-population-list-2005.pdf

[rpannier]

1. We're Number 1! We're Number1!

Now...doesn't everyone feel safer now?

On a serious note:
This is really damned sad. We have got to be the least creative post-industrialized Democracy in the world when it comes to dealing with law enforcement issues.
At the rate we're going, we'll have half our population in prisons by 2020. No wonder so many corporations want to go to private prisons.

[survivor999]

2. Half the population in prison

Half retired... Who's gonna be supporting the population? Great future! :shrug:

[Asgaya Dihi]

4. That won't be an issue

The prison systems in the past have handled everything from our telemarketing to customer service at times till the idea of them having our credit card numbers finally struck someone as a bad idea. It's mostly done State by State so it's not even across the country, to get a taste of how yours is using its prison labor check the following.

In Texas they are a free labor force that makes furniture among other things at an almost giveaway rate for select officials. It's free labor, if need be they'll make it pay.

http://www.prisonactivist.org/prison-labor/

[rpannier]

17. Retired???

That's soooo 20th Century.
Don't you know? We're going back to the pre-19th Century of retirement. If you have a family to support you or money you can retire. Otherwise, you work til you drop dead.

[JVS]

14. USA USA USA!

[barb162]

3. for some reason I can't get on the link but just from reading your

post I would have to say it's China with the largest numbers, including their forced labor camps

[Asgaya Dihi]

5. Try this one

The site he linked is good but I'm fairly sure it's sourced from this one in the first place, so you might try it directly.

http://www.prisonstudies.org/

For current stats just select "World Prison Brief" then "Highest to Lowest Rates".

[barb162]

19. Thanks, it worked. I still think it's not picking up millions of

Chinese in forced labor camps.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4515197.stm
http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=6302

[Miss Chybil]

6. On edit: Never mind. I get it. nt

[Alexodin]

7. Why does it say:

"Over 9 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world......"

"Almost half of these are in the United States (2.09m)"

2.09 is almost half of 9? Am I missing something?

So we offshore our jobs and in-source our jobs and we must also compete with prison slave labor.

You know with a roof over head and meals prison looks like a better deal than minimum wage.

[LincolnMcGrath]

8. It's the commas, period!

Almost half of these are in the
United States (2.09m), China (1.55m plus pretrial
detainees and prisoners in ‘administrative
detention’) or Russia (0.76m).

[Asgaya Dihi]

9. The comma :)

You just missed the comma, it's not half in just the US but half between the few listed nations.

[Toucano]

10. That got me too for a minute.

It's almost half are in the U.S., China, and Russia.

[survivor999]

11. Got me too!

:)

[Alexodin]

12. Ok thanks I knew I was missing something.

There was another thread on this subject that reported a figure of 1 in 135 US residents behind bars. I think the operative word is "residents". How many of these residents are under 18? I suspect the figure is more alarming than 1 in 135.

[Asgaya Dihi]

16. You're right

Prisoners in transport are often not counted, our military and indian reservation prisoners generally aren't counted and juveniles are never included in most incarceration statistics.

The count in total, or as close as I've come to it, was well over 2.2 million a few years ago rather than nearing it today. You can reference that at point #10 on the following page, the stats there are a couple of years old though so it won't match with more current ones but it'll give you a taste of what's left out of them. http://drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm

The most current numbers I'm aware of don't include juvies, but the best single source I know of for research on most of the system is the following. http://www.prisonpolicy.org/ The stats for the US now is 724 inmates per 100,000, that'll be updated again shortly since it's about that time of year. 714 was the year before that.

If anyone doubts any of the stats and such in these types of threads, ask some cops about it. They've got a short video that's interesting linked from the main page. It's real enough. http://leap.cc/

[Asgaya Dihi]

21. Slight clarification

It didn't occur to me till I just read it that someone might misunderstand what I said above. The number 714 I assume was a typo of 724 in the first post which our current stat. I *should* have said we passed that last year, not that was last year. Last years stat was 702, the year before 686.

Sorry for any confusion, don't want any wrong impressions out there. We've got enough already.

Edit: finally got the link in the op to work, both numbers are right. The place I normally source at goes with June statistics, this document went with December stats which was half way between the ones I'm used to. Makes more sense now ;)

[Monk06]

13. Canada 116 per 100,000. Twice as high as the Netherlands but...

not bad.

[JVS]

15. I'm sure that as the Chinese become richer and thus better able to...

afford incarceration, their rates will rise too.

[Alexodin]

18. Perhaps.

If Walmart wants more American flags China may have to jail more dissidents to keep up with the demand for flag making labor.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

20. they hate us for our freedom

er....

[bj2110]

22. Now, how many of the 714 per 100,000 are in prison on drug charges?

I bet it's over 500.

[survivor999]

23. Very good point...

I'd like to see the data broken down by crime as well... I bet drug charges are at the top (I mean, simple possession)...

[Asgaya Dihi]

24. Not directly

It depends on the system, Federal or State, and also some on sex. In the Federal system over 50% overall are there directly related to drug charges and in the State systems it's between 20-25%. Women are more prone to end up incarcerated for drugs than men though they have much lower overall rates and race makes a pretty big difference as well. A few stats on the system at the following.

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm

The numbers there related to drugs are much higher than the direct drug convictions though, the dealer who is in for killing to protect his corner doesn't count as drug related, but it is. The addict who goes in for robbery to support a habit doesn't count but is, and the same could be said for many of our outright violent criminals. You might go in a scared kid who just bought a bag on the wrong corner, but after five years or so inside you're likely to come out mean and knowing how to hurt people, as well as angry enough to be inclined to do so. Lock someone up with animals and treat them like an animal and we just create new animals, then release them better trained to hurt people.

The prison and jail system grew by 6 times since 1972, our population only a fraction of that. I'd credit most of the growth over the rate of population growth to the drug war myself. Wasn't any other reason for that growth that I can find, and we now imprison our own at a rate 5-8 times that of nations similar to us such as Britain, France and Germany.