Why US has the highest prison population in the world higher than China, Cuba and other communist countries?

More than 9.25 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees (remand prisoners) or as sentenced prisoners. Almost half of these are in the United States (2.19m), China (1.55m plus pre- trial detainees and prisoners in ‘administrative detention’) or Russia (0.87m).

The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, some 738 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Russia (611), St Kitts & Nevis (547), U.S. Virgin Is. (521), Turkmenistan (c.489), Belize (487), Cuba (c.487), Palau (478), British Virgin Is. (464), Bermuda (463), Bahamas (462), Cayman Is. (453), American Samoa (446), Belarus (426) and Dominica (419).
However, more than three fifths of countries (61%) have rates below 150 per 100,000. (The rate in England and Wales – 148 per 100,000 of the national population – is above the mid-point in the World List.)

30 Responses to Why US has the highest prison population in the world higher than China, Cuba and other communist countries?

  1. Truth Wizard

    The number 1 reason is that the U.S. is one of the least proactive countries (of all modern countries) in the world, in terms of addressing poverty, racism, disenfranchisement and cultural collapse. Other countries work much harder and contribute much more in those areas, and they reap the benefits. They are much healthier socially and their crime-rates are much lower.

    The U.S., and conservatives in particular, look at the numbers and chalk them up to specific groups that are “to blame” for the exaggerated statistics; illegal Mexican immigrants, the poor, blacks, Native Americans… etc.

    It’s pathetic. As long as they keep trying to rationalize away the realities, nothing will substantially improve. They’ll fight all the wars… the war on illegal immigration, the war on drugs, the war on poverty (the war on the impoverished)… and the problems will escalate.

    As a final note, America has about 12% of the worlds population, but 1/3 of the world prison population is incarcerated in the United States.

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  2. Mad Scientist

    Because they’re arresting all the people who don’t like Bush!:)

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  3. Other countries are smart, and know that they dont want to pay for scumbags to live an entire life in a cement building. We need to kill them instead of life sentences! Wise up America!

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  4. Out of sight, out of mind.

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  5. emily_yo_301

    Because people are idiots these days.

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