The Pew Center on the States published a new report claiming that one out of every 99.1 adults - or 2,319,258 Americans - is now behind bars, giving America the largest prison population in the world - both in terms of per capita or raw numbers.
Some other interesting finds from the report:
- The US spent over $49 billion on corrections in 2007.
- The rate of increase for prison costs over the last twenty years was six times greater than for higher education spending.
- Kentucky witnessed a 12 percent inmate population increase in 2007 - the largest in the nation
- Average annual cost per prisoner: $23,876.
- California’s 2007 corrections spending: $8.8 billion; Texas’s 2007 corrections spending (which houses more inmates than CA): $3.3 billion
- Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut all spent more on corrections than higher education
If you’re thinking about becoming a criminal, I’d recommend Rhode Island as the place to do it - the state annually spent $44,860 per prisoner, the highest in the nation.
A first: 1 in 100 Americans jailed - [MSNBC]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: 1 in 100, america, prison
