The Big Graph

The Big Graph. . , How does the United States compare? , Number of People in Prison Per 100,000 Citizens , The U.S. imprisons more of its population than any other nation, by far., Canada, Australia, and the nations of Western Europe all have rates of incarceration less than one quarter that of the U.S., The U.S. prison system is also the most expensive in the world. It costs $80 billion every year., U.S. Rate of Incarceration , The United States prison population has grown at an historic rate in the past 40 years., For more than a century, the U.S. imprisoned between 100 and 200 people for every 100,000 citizens., That began to change around the time that Eastern State Penitentiary closed in 1970. new laws and longer prison sentences have led to massive increases in the number of Americans sent to prison., Today the U.S. imprisons more than 700 people for every 100,000 citizens. This is, by far, the highest rate of incarceration in the world., Crime rates have gone up and down throughout the years. They are largely independent of the rate of incarceration., Nearly 600% growth in number of U.S. prisoners between 1970 and 2010., Race , and the U.S. Prison System , Although the massive growth of the U.S. prison population has created more prisoners of all racial groups, Black and Latino communities have been the most heavily impacted. This crisis is only growing worse with time., In 1970, more than half of U.S. prisoners were White. That percentage shrank to just 36% by 2010., In that time, Black and Latino prisoners grew to 60% of the U.S. prison population (while just 30% of the general population)., Why is this happening? Many scholars point to the strong correlation in the U.S. between race, poverty, and lack of opportunities such as quality education., What other factors might be contributing to this trend? How do you think our nation should address this crisis?, Latino prisoners made up just 5% of the prison population in 1970. That percentage grew to 21% by 2010, when the general population was 16% Latino., Black Americans were already greatly overrepresented in prisons and jails in 1970. This group remained about 40% of the prison population in 2010, but only 13% of the general population., With shrinking percentages of White prisoners, Black prisoners are now the largest racial group in U.S. prisons.