The US Has More People in Jail Than Any Other Nation

Incarceration Rates in the United States Versus Other Countries

The US incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than any other country on earth (Wagner & Sawyer, 2018). It has the largest prison population by far with over 2,000,000 prisoners behind bars. Second is China with just over 1.5 million prisoners incarcerated. Third is Russia with just shy of 900,000 prisoners and in a distant fourth place is Brazil with just shy of 400,000 prisoners (BBC, 2019). In terms of incarceration population the US certainly takes the top spot among all nations of the rate. But in terms of incarceration rate, i.e., the total percentage of its population locked away, the US still takes the top spot—higher even than oppressive regimes like the one in El Salvador, Cuba, Thailand or Rwanda. The US imprisons 655 people for every 100,000 people in the country (Radu, 2019). Overall, the US represents 4.4% of the world’s population and yet it accounts for 22% of the world’s prison population (Walmsley, 2013). This sad state of affairs for the US should indicate that there is something drastically problematic either with American culture or with the American justice system—or both, as Davis (2012) argues. Considering that 37% of America’s prison population is black, though blacks are only 12% of the US population total (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014), it would seem that Davis (2012) is correct in her argument that the prison industrial complex in America is running amok and is feeding on the lives of the marginalized and most oppressed people in the nation—the African-American community.

Over the whole world, there are more than 10 million individuals incarcerated at any given time—many of them as pre-trial detainees. The US along with China and Russia account for nearly half of these prisoners (Walmsley, 2013). These three countries make up the largest top tier incarceration nations in all the world. It is telling that the US should rank at the top of the list, outstripping both China and Russia, who have reputations for repressive regimes. The US on the other hand touts itself around the world as being the beacon of freedom, equality and democracy. Its prison population tells a different story, however.

It is that story that Davis (2012) tries to tell in her activism against the prison industrial complex. That complex consists of public and private (i.e., for profit) prisons, which use prisoners as a source of labor contracted out to American corporations. In other words, the prison industrial complex has created a new form of plantation slavery, with prisoners in the American Gulag serving the will of the American corporations and receiving pennies on the dollar for their labor (Pelaez, 2019).

The fact that the US’s prison population rate is so high—in fact, the highest in the world—is the most troubling statistic for the supposedly free and equal society. The prison population rate in the US varies regionally—i.e., it is higher in certain parts of the country where the populations are more diverse and poorer. But this is essentially true for other nations as well. For example, in Africa the average prison population rate for states in West Africa is 46 whereas for countries in South Africa it is 205 (Walmsley, 2013). One reason for this discrepancy geographically speaking is the fact that there are varying degrees of development and culture among the different regions of Africa, as well as different regimes in power. In the US, every state is similar with different states being red or blue states (Republican or Democrat traditionally) and thus with different laws, cultures and attitudes towards incarceration in place. In left-leaning states there are more alternative sentencing policies in place as is the case in California and New York. New York in fact just began a bail reform policy meant to get more pre-trial prisoners out from behind bars and back into society.

Those who oppose such forms of bail reform generally view it as a liberal policy that makes the streets less safe. Those who applaud it generally do so because they see the law as oppressive and the justice system as unfair. There are cultural beliefs that drive both viewpoints along with socio-political views as well. However, the fact that the nation itself is generally diversified in terms of how it approaches the prison issue reveals that the system is not uniform from place to place. Overall, the US reflects the larger diverse positions of the Americas and the Caribbean. In the Americas the average rate for South American nations is 202 while for Caribbean states it is 376 (Walmsley, 2013). One explanation for why these rates are so much higher than in Africa is that the regimes in power may be more repressive in the Americas than they are in Africa. Another reason may be that in Africa, the states are poorer and lack the infrastructure for incarceration at any higher rate.

In most countries, there is not the private industry or the capacity for the type of prison industrial complex like that seen in the US. The US is by far the leading country in terms of having a prison industrial complex that profits from incarceration rates just as Apple profits from iPhone sales. The prison industry in the US has its lobbyists in Washington just like the NRA has its lobbyists, the airline industry has its lobbyists, the pharmaceutical industry has its lobbyists and the housing industry has its lobbyists. The prison industry lobbies on matters related to the justice system and policies and laws relating to incarceration.

Because incarceration itself is seen as a business in the US rather than as a form of punishment, a deterrent or a method of incapacitation as it is in other countries, the US is more likely to exploit weaknesses in the market place and use them to the advantage of the business side of things. Thus, the prison industrial complex in the US has found a way to keep the profits coming by working closely with the criminal justice system in the US at the federal level and with the states at the state level. The goal of this relationship is to make sure that a steady stream of prisoners is continuously fed into the system (Davis, 2012).

In Russia and China, the emphasis is more on social control rather than on business. The US approaches incarceration from the standpoint of business, which is evident in the fact that the prisons are privatized to a high rate in the US. In China, the prisons are state owned and operated, and in Russia the trappings of the old Soviet empire still prevail in many ways, particularly in the criminal justice system there. Russia’s justice system created the idea of a Gulag, as described by Solzhenitsyn in his memoirs, and the American system today is resembling more and more that same Gulag style—just at a greater scale, primarily because the US has a higher population and because the US is more business-oriented in general.