Stats: Mass incarceration in the United States

Here are three things you—and everyone—need to know about mass incarceration in the United States:

• The U.S. has just 4 percent of the world's population, but 16 percent of all its incarcerated people. With almost 2 million people incarcerated in prisons and jails, the U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
• The U.S. incarceration rate grew by about 400 percent between 1970 and 2000. Although the prison rate has been in decline following years of criminal justice reform—and the COVID-19 pandemic—it varies greatly across states, and in some places has even begun to creep up.
• Black people make up 35 percent of the incarcerated population despite representing only 13 percent of the U.S. population. People of color, especially Black people, are overpoliced and over-arrested.
   
  vera.org e-mail of Mon Sep 30 2024