America leads the world in the number of its people under correctional control, according to a report by the PEW Center on the States.
The report says one in 31 U.S. adults were under correctional control in 2008, the latest year for complete data.
The PEW study defined correctional control as the total number of people in prison and jail, combined with those on probation and parole.
The U.S. had an incarceration rate of 753 per 100,000 in 2010, which is 240 percent higher than in 1980.
Others in the top 10 are 629 Russia, 593 Rwanda. 476 Belize, 423 Georgia, 407 Bahamas, 385 Belarus, 382 Kazakhstan and 365 French Guiana.
Other major rates include 224 per 100,000 for Poland and 209 for Mexico. At the lower end are Iceland 44, Japan 63, Denmark 66, Finland 67, Norway 70 and Sweden 74.
Incarceration costs are forcing the U.S. to consider alternatives seriously. A 2010 report by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) found that federal, state and local governments spent nearly $75 billion on corrections in 2008. This expenditure for correctional control of a record 7,328,200 U.S. adults has an affect on local economies. William Wrenn, New Hampshire Commissioner of Corrections said, “It’s not about being tough on crime or soft on crime. We are facing a huge economic challenge here. Are we doing the right thing?”
California built 21 new prisons from 1984 through 1995 to accommodate its prison population, while building only one new university during that same period. This approach to crime and punishment drove California’s prison expenditures up by 30 percent between 1987 and 1995, while at the same time decreasing higher education expenditures by 18 percent.
The CEPR said non-violent offenders make up over 60 percent of the prison and jail population. “We calculate that a reduction by one-half in the incarceration rate of non-violent offenders would lower correctional expenditures by $16.9 billion per year and return the U.S. to about the same incarceration rate we had in 1993,” the CEPR report said. “A review of extensive research on incarceration and crime suggests that these savings could be achieved without any appreciable deterioration in public safety.”
