I was having a lunch discussion about something I’d overheard while watching QI. Steven Fry had commented that 1 in 9 black adults in the US is currently in jail. This was met with lots of comments that it could not be so. Well, it is. According to Wikipedia and as reported by the NY Times, the Washington Post and the Independent:
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. The USA also has the highest total documented prison and jail population in the world. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): “In 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults.”
Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.
Still, shocking news from the Land of the Free… The US locks up more of its citizens than China, which has 4 times the overall population. Impressive.