18 Must-Know Facts about U.S. Prisons
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Over 2.2 million people are currently in U.S. jails or prisons.
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That’s more than the entire population of New Mexico.
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It’s the highest prison population in the entire world.*
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The U.S. also has the highest prison rate in the world at about 724 people per 100,000.*
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Half of the world’s prison population of approximately nine million people are held in the U.S., Russia, or China.
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Over 2.7 million children in the U.S. have a parent behind bars.
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There are over 5,000 jails and prisons in the U.S.
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There are more jails than colleges in the U.S.
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In many parts of the country, there are more people in jail than living on college campuses.
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The U.S. prison population has more than quadrupled since the early 1980s: when mandatory minimum sentencing laws for drugs when into effect.
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Severe prison overcrowding means that violent criminals are being released early to make room for non-violent drug offenders that are required to serve a minimum amount of time–regardless of what a judge says.
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About half of the inmates in federal prisons are serving time for non-violent drug offenses.
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Federal law currently requires a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for a first time, non-violent drug offense.
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Approximately 60 percent of federal drug offenders are subject to mandatory minimum sentences.
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The average annual cost to incarcerate one inmate in federal prison is about $29,000.
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Incarceration costs taxpayers almost $70 billion annually.
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State spending on corrections has grown about 300 percent in just the past 20 years.
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The Smarter Sentencing Act would save taxpayers nearly $24 billion over the next 20 years
*Disclaimer: Excludes countries that cannot be verified (e.g., North Korea).