Below are 2013 statistics comparing the incarceration rates of nations worldwide. How many nations incarcerate more of its population (per 100,000) than the United States of America?
Zero.
The US is the world leader in jailing it citizens, incarcerating more of its people than any other nation in the world. More than North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, Israel. Anyone.
And we like to think we're the greatest nation on earth.
For more about mass incarceration in the US, particularly the jailing of our minority populations, you can check out this post of mine The New Jim Crow.
Of particular concern is how persons with felony convictions are systematically disenfranchised, removed from voting rolls. The racial aspect of this disenfranchisement was explored yesterday by Jamelle Bouie in his The American Prospect article "The Ex-Con Factor".
