The number of men behind bars in the US is mind-boggling

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2016-06-21 07:31

Story here. Excerpt:

'The number of men behind bars in the US is mind-boggling.

In a hefty report on the long-term decline in the prime-age male labor-force participation, the White House's Council of Economic Advisers shared a few charts that showed just how stunning America's incarceration rate is.

The US has the highest incarceration rate out of any OECD country at about 700 inmates per 100,000 residents, according to data from the World Prison Population List - which is about as much as five times the OECD average. By comparison, the next closest state is Israel, whose incarceration rate is about 250 inmates per 100,000. The OECD is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Moreover, the number of men incarcerated has increased dramatically over the last 25 years. Data from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that the rate has grown from 564 per 100,000 in 1990 to 890 per 100,000 in 2014. Notably, this spike is correlated with the War on Drugs.'

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