"Despite having only 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States houses almost a quarter of the planet’s prisoners.
There are 2.3 million criminals in U.S. jails, more than in any other nation, according to the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.
The number is “a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes—from writing bad checks to using drugs—that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries,” reports The New York Times.
A different study recently published by the Pew Center on the States showed that there are a disproportionately high number of minorities behind bars.
One in 36 Latino adults, 1 in 15 black adults and 1 in 9 black men between the ages of 20 and 34 are behind bars, according to Department of Justice figures."
