United States incarceration rate
Encyclopedia
The United States of America has an incarceration
rate of 743 per 100,000 of national population (as of 2009), the highest in the world. In comparison, Russia
has the second highest 577 per 100,000, Canada
is 123rd in the world with 117 per 100,000, and China
has 120 per 100,000. While Americans only represent about 5 percent of the world's population, one-quarter of the entire world's inmates are incarcerated in the United States.
, on probation
, or on parole
. That means roughly 1 in every 32 Americans are held by the justice system. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies
(ICPS) at King's College London
, of that 7.2 million, 2.3 million are in prison. The People's Republic of China
comes in second place with 1.6 million, despite its population being over four times that of the United States.
In 2004, a majority of state inmates (53 percent) and almost half of federal inmates (45 percent) had used drugs in the year before their admission to prison. Among the prisoners, drug offenders made up the same percentage of State prisoners in both 1997 and 2004 (21%). The percentage of Federal prisoners serving time for drug offenses declined from 63% in 1997 to 55% in 2004. In the twenty-five years since the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the United States penal population rose from around 300,000 to more than two million. Between 1986 and 1991, African-American's women's incarceration in state prisons for drug offenses increased by 828 percent.
In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that U.S. State prison population growth rate had fallen to its lowest since 2006, but it still had a 0.2% growth-rate compared to the total U.S. prison population. In state of California
, the US State Prison population fell during 2009 for first time in 38 years. When looking at specific populations within the criminal justice system the growth rates are vastly different. In 1977, there were just slightly more than eleven thousand incarcerated females. By 2004, the number of women under state or federal prison had increased by 757 percent, to more than 111,000, and the percentage of women in prison has increased every year, at roughly double the rate of men, since 2000. The rate of incarcerated females has expanded at about 4.6% annually between 1995 and 2005 with women now accounting for 7% of the population in state and federal prisons.
The United States imprisons more of its racial minorities than any other country in the world. In Washington D.C., three out of every four young black men are expected to serve some time in prison. In major cities across the country, 80% of young African Americans now have criminal records.
Even though other countries have more prisoners annually, the fact that the United States keeps their prisoners longer causes the total rate to become higher. To give an example, the average burglary sentence in the United States is 16 months, compared to 5 months in Canada
and 7 months in England. Looking at reasons for imprisonment will further clarify why the incarceration rate and length of sentences are so high. The practice of imposing longer prison sentences on repeat offenders is common in many countries but the Three strike laws in the U.S. with mandatory 25 year imprisonment — implemented in many states in the 1990s — is very extreme compared to countries in Europe.
One of the biggest contributors to the United States' spike is the war on drugs
. During the first 9 years after 1971, when president Nixon coined the expression 'War on Drugs,' statistics show only a minor increase of the number of imprisoned. Around 1980 the United States had 40,000 people in prison for drug crimes. After the passage of Reagan's Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1986, incarceration for non-violent offenses dramatically increased. Part of the legislation included the implementation of mandatory minimum sentences for "the distribution of cocaine, including far more severe punishment for distribution of crack—associated with blacks—than powder cocaine, associated with whites". Under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, users of powder cocaine can possess up to 100 times more substance than users of crack, while facing the same mandatory sentence. The Anti-Drug Act targeted low-level street dealers, which had a disproportionate effect on poor blacks, Latinos, the young, and women.
Beginning in the 1970s, the War on Drugs has continued. As the War on Drugs proceeds, more and more people are being convicted for nonviolent offenses. When looking at female rates, by 2003, 58% of all women in federal prison were convicted of drug offenses. Women of color are disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs. African American women's incarceration rates for all crimes, largely driven by drug convictions, have increased by 800% since 1986, compared to an increase of 400% for women of other races. Convictions have also widened to include women who are not only directly involved in the drug trade but those who are indirectly involved either through their spouses, families, or communities.
, 49.3% of state prisoners, or 656,000 individuals, were incarcerated for non-violent crime
s. , 90.7% of federal prisoners, or 165,457 individuals, were incarcerated for non-violent offenses. Drug offenses account for two-thirds of the federal inmate population; approximately half a million people are in prison for a drug offense today compared to 40,000 in 1981—an increase of 1,100 percent. Marijuana-related offenses is only minor cause for the increase of prisoners. In 2004 was approximately 12.7% of state prisoners and 12.4% of Federal prisoners were serving time for a cannabis related offence
Dorothy Roberts, in Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, offers another cause for the increase in female incarceration. She believes that the United States has begun criminalizing reproduction. There have been an increasing number of cases that penalize pregnancy in two different ways—the prosecution of women for exposing their babies to drugs in the womb and the imposition of birth control as a condition of probation. These new policies also disproportionately affect African-American females. While surveys suggest that black and white women use drugs at relatively the same rates, black females are much more likely to 'get caught'. According to Roberts, the explanation is that poor women, who are disproportionately black, are more likely to be placed under constant supervision by the State in order to receive social services. They are then more likely to be caught by officials who are instructed to look specifically for drug offenses. Roberts argues that the criminal justice system's creation of new crimes has a direct affect on the number of women, especially black women, who then become incarcerated.
In 1995, the government allocated $5.1 billion for new prison space. Every $100 million spent in construction costs $53 million per year in finance and operational costs over the next three decades. Taxpayers spend $60 billion a year for prisons. In 2005, it cost an average of $23,876 a year to house a prisoner. It takes about $30,000 per year per person to provide drug rehab treatment to inmates. By contrast, the cost of drug rehab treatment outside of a prison costs about $8,000 per year per person.
American journalist Reihan Salam
has argued in National Review Online that past a certain point in which more of the population have been or are currently in prison, incarceration becomes more destigmatized
and crime would actually increase (akin to the Laffer curve
). He stated that the U.S. is "past that point" with its incarceration rate. The effects of such high incarceration rates are also shown in other ways. Consider a woman who has been recently released from prison. In most states she is ineligible for welfare. She is not eligible for subsidized housing, and for Section 8 she has to wait two years before she can apply. In addition to finding housing, she also has to find employment, but most likely she can not find a job because she has a record so no one wants to hire her. Essentially, a woman who has been recently released from prison comes into a society that is not prepared structurally or emotionally to welcome her back.
Marc Mauer, assistant director of the non-profit group Sentencing Project
, has remarked that "we don't see are the ripple effects of what they mean: For the generation of black children today, there's almost an inevitable aspect of going to prison". For every mother that is incarcerated in the United States there are about another ten people (children, grandparents, community, etc.) that are directly affected.
In The New Jim Crow
, Michelle Alexander
contends that the U.S. incarceration system works to bar black men from voting. She writes "there are more African Americans under correctional control -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole -- than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began."
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world at 754 per 100,000 . A report released 28 February 2008, indicates that more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States are in prison. The United States has less than 5% of the world's population and 23% of the world's prison population. In addition to overall incarceration rates, the United States is also leading in rates of female incarceration. In the United States, women make up more than one tenth of the whole prison population. In most countries, the proportion of female inmates to the larger population is closer to one in twenty. Australia is the exception where the rate of female imprisonment increased from 9.2 percent in 1991 to 15.3 percent in 1999.
Comparing other English-speaking developed countries, the incarceration rate of Canada is 117 per 100,000 , England and Wales
is 154 per 100,000 , and Australia
is 133 per 100,000 . Comparing other developed countries, the rate of Spain
is 159 per 100,000 , Greece is 102 per 100,000 ,and Japan is 59 per 100,000 . Comparing other countries with similar percentages of immigrants, Germany
has a rate of 85 per 100,000 , Italy
has a rate of 113 per 100,000 , and Saudi Arabia
has a rate of 178 per 100,000 .
The incarceration rate of the People's Republic of China
varies depending on sources and measures. According to the ICPS, the rate for only sentenced prisoners is 120 per 100,000 and the rate for prisoners including those in administrative detention and pre-trial detainees is 186 per 100,000 . Su Jiang assessed the incarceration rate for all forms of imprisonment in China at 218 prisoners per 100,000 population. Harry Wu
, a U.S.-based human rights
activist and ex-Chinese labor camp
prisoner, estimates that "in the last 60 years, more than 40–50 million people" were in Chinese labor camps.
In addition, the United States has striking statistics when observing the racial dimension of mass incarceration. According to Michelle Alexander, the United States "imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid."
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
rate of 743 per 100,000 of national population (as of 2009), the highest in the world. In comparison, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
has the second highest 577 per 100,000, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
is 123rd in the world with 117 per 100,000, and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
has 120 per 100,000. While Americans only represent about 5 percent of the world's population, one-quarter of the entire world's inmates are incarcerated in the United States.
Incarceration rate
According to a US Department of Justice report published in 2006, over 7.2 million people were at that time in prisonPrison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, on probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
, or on parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
. That means roughly 1 in every 32 Americans are held by the justice system. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies
International Centre for Prison Studies
The International Centre for Prison Studies launched its new academic partnership with the University of Essex at the House of Lords on 4 April 2011....
(ICPS) at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
, of that 7.2 million, 2.3 million are in prison. The People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
comes in second place with 1.6 million, despite its population being over four times that of the United States.
In 2004, a majority of state inmates (53 percent) and almost half of federal inmates (45 percent) had used drugs in the year before their admission to prison. Among the prisoners, drug offenders made up the same percentage of State prisoners in both 1997 and 2004 (21%). The percentage of Federal prisoners serving time for drug offenses declined from 63% in 1997 to 55% in 2004. In the twenty-five years since the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the United States penal population rose from around 300,000 to more than two million. Between 1986 and 1991, African-American's women's incarceration in state prisons for drug offenses increased by 828 percent.
In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that U.S. State prison population growth rate had fallen to its lowest since 2006, but it still had a 0.2% growth-rate compared to the total U.S. prison population. In state of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, the US State Prison population fell during 2009 for first time in 38 years. When looking at specific populations within the criminal justice system the growth rates are vastly different. In 1977, there were just slightly more than eleven thousand incarcerated females. By 2004, the number of women under state or federal prison had increased by 757 percent, to more than 111,000, and the percentage of women in prison has increased every year, at roughly double the rate of men, since 2000. The rate of incarcerated females has expanded at about 4.6% annually between 1995 and 2005 with women now accounting for 7% of the population in state and federal prisons.
The United States imprisons more of its racial minorities than any other country in the world. In Washington D.C., three out of every four young black men are expected to serve some time in prison. In major cities across the country, 80% of young African Americans now have criminal records.
Causes
A major cause of such high numbers is the length of the prison sentences in the United States. One of the criticisms of the United States system is that it has much longer sentences than any other part of the world. The typical mandatory sentence for a first-time drug offense in federal court is five or ten years, compared to other developed countries around the world where a first time offense would warrant at most 6 months in jail. Mandatory sentencing prohibits judges from using their discretion and forces them to place longer sentences on nonviolent offenses than they normally would do.Even though other countries have more prisoners annually, the fact that the United States keeps their prisoners longer causes the total rate to become higher. To give an example, the average burglary sentence in the United States is 16 months, compared to 5 months in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and 7 months in England. Looking at reasons for imprisonment will further clarify why the incarceration rate and length of sentences are so high. The practice of imposing longer prison sentences on repeat offenders is common in many countries but the Three strike laws in the U.S. with mandatory 25 year imprisonment — implemented in many states in the 1990s — is very extreme compared to countries in Europe.
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
. During the first 9 years after 1971, when president Nixon coined the expression 'War on Drugs,' statistics show only a minor increase of the number of imprisoned. Around 1980 the United States had 40,000 people in prison for drug crimes. After the passage of Reagan's Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1986, incarceration for non-violent offenses dramatically increased. Part of the legislation included the implementation of mandatory minimum sentences for "the distribution of cocaine, including far more severe punishment for distribution of crack—associated with blacks—than powder cocaine, associated with whites". Under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, users of powder cocaine can possess up to 100 times more substance than users of crack, while facing the same mandatory sentence. The Anti-Drug Act targeted low-level street dealers, which had a disproportionate effect on poor blacks, Latinos, the young, and women.
Beginning in the 1970s, the War on Drugs has continued. As the War on Drugs proceeds, more and more people are being convicted for nonviolent offenses. When looking at female rates, by 2003, 58% of all women in federal prison were convicted of drug offenses. Women of color are disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs. African American women's incarceration rates for all crimes, largely driven by drug convictions, have increased by 800% since 1986, compared to an increase of 400% for women of other races. Convictions have also widened to include women who are not only directly involved in the drug trade but those who are indirectly involved either through their spouses, families, or communities.
, 49.3% of state prisoners, or 656,000 individuals, were incarcerated for non-violent crime
Violent crime
A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. Violent...
s. , 90.7% of federal prisoners, or 165,457 individuals, were incarcerated for non-violent offenses. Drug offenses account for two-thirds of the federal inmate population; approximately half a million people are in prison for a drug offense today compared to 40,000 in 1981—an increase of 1,100 percent. Marijuana-related offenses is only minor cause for the increase of prisoners. In 2004 was approximately 12.7% of state prisoners and 12.4% of Federal prisoners were serving time for a cannabis related offence
Dorothy Roberts, in Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, offers another cause for the increase in female incarceration. She believes that the United States has begun criminalizing reproduction. There have been an increasing number of cases that penalize pregnancy in two different ways—the prosecution of women for exposing their babies to drugs in the womb and the imposition of birth control as a condition of probation. These new policies also disproportionately affect African-American females. While surveys suggest that black and white women use drugs at relatively the same rates, black females are much more likely to 'get caught'. According to Roberts, the explanation is that poor women, who are disproportionately black, are more likely to be placed under constant supervision by the State in order to receive social services. They are then more likely to be caught by officials who are instructed to look specifically for drug offenses. Roberts argues that the criminal justice system's creation of new crimes has a direct affect on the number of women, especially black women, who then become incarcerated.
Effects
Within three years of being released, 67% of ex-prisoners re-offend and 52% are re-incarcerated, according to a study published in 1994. The rate of recidivism is so high in the United States that most inmates who enter the system are likely to reenter within a year of their release. One woman, "realized that [she] became part of a cycle, a system that looked forward to seeing [her] there. [She] was aware…that [she] would be one of those people that would fill up their prisons".In 1995, the government allocated $5.1 billion for new prison space. Every $100 million spent in construction costs $53 million per year in finance and operational costs over the next three decades. Taxpayers spend $60 billion a year for prisons. In 2005, it cost an average of $23,876 a year to house a prisoner. It takes about $30,000 per year per person to provide drug rehab treatment to inmates. By contrast, the cost of drug rehab treatment outside of a prison costs about $8,000 per year per person.
American journalist Reihan Salam
Reihan Salam
Reihan Morshed Salam is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. He is a columnist for The Daily and lead writer of National Reviews "The Agenda" blog, as well as a policy adviser at e21 and a contributing editor at National Affairs...
has argued in National Review Online that past a certain point in which more of the population have been or are currently in prison, incarceration becomes more destigmatized
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
and crime would actually increase (akin to the Laffer curve
Laffer curve
In economics, the Laffer curve is a theoretical representation of the relationship between government revenue raised by taxation and all possible rates of taxation. It is used to illustrate the concept of taxable income elasticity . The curve is constructed by thought experiment...
). He stated that the U.S. is "past that point" with its incarceration rate. The effects of such high incarceration rates are also shown in other ways. Consider a woman who has been recently released from prison. In most states she is ineligible for welfare. She is not eligible for subsidized housing, and for Section 8 she has to wait two years before she can apply. In addition to finding housing, she also has to find employment, but most likely she can not find a job because she has a record so no one wants to hire her. Essentially, a woman who has been recently released from prison comes into a society that is not prepared structurally or emotionally to welcome her back.
Marc Mauer, assistant director of the non-profit group Sentencing Project
Sentencing Project
The Sentencing Project, based in Washington, D.C., promotes "more effective and humane" alternatives to prison for criminal offenders. It has produced several influential reports on inequalities in the U.S...
, has remarked that "we don't see are the ripple effects of what they mean: For the generation of black children today, there's almost an inevitable aspect of going to prison". For every mother that is incarcerated in the United States there are about another ten people (children, grandparents, community, etc.) that are directly affected.
In The New Jim Crow
The New Jim Crow
The New Jim Crow is a 2010 book and a name given to a category of race-related social and political phenomena in the United States by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar...
, Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander is an associate professor of law at Ohio State University and a civil rights advocate, who has litigated numerous class action discrimination cases and has worked on criminal justice reform issues...
contends that the U.S. incarceration system works to bar black men from voting. She writes "there are more African Americans under correctional control -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole -- than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began."
Comparison with other countries
Comparing other English-speaking developed countries, the incarceration rate of Canada is 117 per 100,000 , England and Wales
England and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
is 154 per 100,000 , and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
is 133 per 100,000 . Comparing other developed countries, the rate of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
is 159 per 100,000 , Greece is 102 per 100,000 ,and Japan is 59 per 100,000 . Comparing other countries with similar percentages of immigrants, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
has a rate of 85 per 100,000 , Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
has a rate of 113 per 100,000 , and Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
has a rate of 178 per 100,000 .
The incarceration rate of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
varies depending on sources and measures. According to the ICPS, the rate for only sentenced prisoners is 120 per 100,000 and the rate for prisoners including those in administrative detention and pre-trial detainees is 186 per 100,000 . Su Jiang assessed the incarceration rate for all forms of imprisonment in China at 218 prisoners per 100,000 population. Harry Wu
Harry Wu
Harry Wu is an activist for human rights in the People's Republic of China. Now a resident and citizen of the United States, Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation. In 1996 the Columbia Human Rights Law Review awarded Wu its second Award for...
, a U.S.-based human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activist and ex-Chinese labor camp
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
prisoner, estimates that "in the last 60 years, more than 40–50 million people" were in Chinese labor camps.
In addition, the United States has striking statistics when observing the racial dimension of mass incarceration. According to Michelle Alexander, the United States "imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid."
See also
- List of countries by incarceration rate
- Incarceration in the United States
- Youth incarceration in the United StatesYouth incarceration in the United StatesThrough the juvenile courts and the adult criminal justice system, the United States incarcerates more of its youth than any other country in the world, a reflection of the larger trends in incarceration practices in the United States. In 2002, approximately 126,000 juveniles were incarcerated in...