A disgraceful US prison record

A survey by the Pew Research Center of the United States recently revealed that the US imprisons more people than any other country in the world. The number of adult American prisoners grew to 2.3 million last year, meaning that more than one in 100 adult Americans are behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail at the start of 2008, one of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it is more than any other nation.

The report also found that the ratio of minority prisoners is even higher: one in 36 adult Hispanic Americans is jailed and one in 15 adult African American is in prison. By the end of 2007, the US spending on prisons and corrections in the 50 states exceeded $49 billion, as compared with $11 billion, 20 years ago.