USA is #1...in Prison Population

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New Justice Department statistics indicate that the number of people in prison in the United States has grown at the highest rate since 2000. That's right, the Land of the Free has more people in jail than any other country in the world with nearly 2.25 million behind bars. Communist China came in a distant second with only 1.5 million.
It said the nation's prison and jail populations increased by more than 62,000 inmates, or 2.8 percent, to about 2,245,000 inmates in the 12-month period that ended on June 30, 2006. It was the biggest jump in numbers and percentage change in six years.
Experts say the increase is mostly attributed to tougher sentencing laws and drug-related offenses. About two-thirds of the country’s prisoners are in state or federal jails while the rest are doing time in the local pokey. Most of them are male, but an unprecedented rise in female prison populations is closing the gender gap.
"Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails," Marci Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that supports criminal justice reform.
With all the talk of the decline of America isn’t it good to know that the US is number one in something?

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