Question

How can the United States justify that we only have 5% of the world's population, yet incarcerate 25% of the world's prisoners?

Answer 1

One of the most distinctive characteristics of the criminal justice system in the United States is the disproportionate number of people in its prisons and jails. Even though the United States makes up just 5% of the world's population, it houses 25% of the world's prison population. At the end of 2008, there were more than 2.3 million people held in U.S. prisons and jails. This equates to a rate of 754 inmates per 100,000 population

Although the U.S. incarceration rate is the highest in the world, the past ten years have witnessed a decline in the rate of growth of incarceration. For example, from 2000 to 2008 the growth of the prison population (1.8% per year on average) was less than a third of the rate observed during the 1990s.

Several factors may be influencing this change in the rate of incarceration. First, both violent and property crime rates have declined in the past ten years. For example, in 1989 the violent crime rate (per 100,000 inhabitants) was 666.9; this rate declined to 523 in 1999 and continued to decline to the lowest rate (454.5) in 2008. This decline may have led to changes in the number of people sent to facilities. A second major factor influencing incarceration rates may be the financial state of the nation. Many states face a financial crisis and one way they can cut costs is to reduce the number of people incarcerated. States have considered various options like alternatives to incarceration or early release.