1. America
Prison population: 2. 217.000
With more than 2.2 million prisoners, America ranks first among 11 countries with the highest prison population. Moreover, the US ranks as the second country by incarnation rate, which was 698 prisoners per 100.000 residents in 2013. The majority of the prison population is concentrated in state prisons, followed by local jails and federal prisons. Moreover, around 71.000 children were held in juvenile detention centers.
Prison Policy’s report warns that these numbers only partly depict the reality of prisons in the US. Yearly, around 12 million people circulate through local jails, and the majority of them are those who are waiting for a trial, while others are usually serving a sentence for minor offenses. At the same time around 15.000 children are imprisoned because of technical violations such as violation of parole. Finally, in federal prisons, there were 22.000 people who violated federal immigration laws and 34.000 waiting for deportation. Thus, high prison population in America doesn’t reflect the prevalence of crime as much as it shows the tendency of the justice system to criminalize minor offenses.
