Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’Now, the fact that we lock up lots of people isn't any big news - I can recall when our prison population surpassed that of China and Jon Stewart sarcastically exclaimed, "We're number 1!"
The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but almost a quarter of its prisoners.
It's the first part of that sentence that kind of jumps out at you: We're 5% of the world, but we still have more prisoners than anyone else. Not only are we locking up more people than China (a country with four times our population) but we are locking up a lot more. Around 700,000 more than they do.
Why the hell is that?
Read on and find out.
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