The other day, I came across an article about Jeff Smith, a former Missouri state senator who was recently released from a 1-year stint in federal prison. Years earlier during a failed congressional run, Smith’s campaign violated election law by sending out anonymous postcards attacking his political opponent. When the violation surfaced years later, Smith was caught on tape conspiring to cover it up.

Not to make light of election law, but a year in prison for conspiracy to cover up postcards? Even if the punishment were fair to Smith and his family, is prison really the best use of tax dollars? Each federal inmate costs tax payers about $29,000 a year. Wouldn’t a suspension from elected office and a monetary fine have been a more suitable punishment?

It all got me to wondering about the U.S. incarceration system. It’s well known that the U.S. locks up a larger share of its population than most other countries, but just how much more?

The U.S. prison population is 3x the size of all other developed countries combined

This map shows the prison populations in the world’s 42 advanced economies (as defined by the C.I.A. World Factbook).

Click on the image to view the map in higher resolution

As the map above shows, the U.S. has over 3x as many prisoners as the rest of the world’s advanced economies combined. And the picture looks even more extreme when you factor in population size.

The 42 countries shown in the map have a combined population of just over 1 billion, of which the U.S. makes up about one-third. That puts the United States’ incarceration rate over 6x as high as the rest of the developed world. No other advanced economy even comes close.

Prison populations and incarceration rates around the world

The U.S. has a much higher incarceration rate than other developed counties, but how does it stack up globally?

Worldwide, the United States’ prison population of 2.2 million is higher than any other country. China is a not-too-distant second with 1.6 million prisoners. After that, no other country is even in the ballpark.

The U.S. incarceration rate, 693 prisoners per 100,000 people, is #2 in the world. The only country with a higher incarceration rate is the tiny island nation of Seychelles, population 89,000.

If you’d like go through the data yourself, click the link below to expand a table showing prison population figures for all countries, data courtesy of World Prison Brief.

Location Prison Population Prisoners Per 100,000 People United States 2217947 693 China 1649804 118 Russian Federation 651464 445 Brazil 607731 301 India 418536 33 Thailand 320308 474 Mexico 255138 212 Iran 225624 287 Turkey 187609 238 Indonesia 180347 69 South Africa 159563 292 Philippines 142168 140 Vietnam 136245 146 Colombia 122020 244 Ethiopia 111050 128 United Kingdom: England & Wales 85540 147 Pakistan 80169 43 Peru 77298 246 Morocco 76000 222 Poland 71786 189 Bangladesh 69719 43 Argentina 69060 160 France 66678 99 Ukraine 64182 177 Egypt 62000 76 Germany 61737 76 Taiwan 61691 263 Spain 61541 133 Algeria 60220 156 Myanmar 60000 113 Japan 59620 47 Cuba 57337 510 Kenya 57000 121 Nigeria 56620 31 Rwanda 54279 434 South Korea 53990 107 Italy 53725 88 Malaysia 52784 172 Venezuela 49664 159 Saudi Arabia 47000 161 Uganda 45092 115 Chile 44003 245 Uzbekistan 43900 150 Iraq 42880 123 Canada 40663 114 Kazakhstan 39179 221 Australia 36134 152 Tanzania 34404 64 El Salvador 33395 517 Turkmenistan 30568 583 Belarus 29000 306 Romania 28393 144 Cameroon 26702 114 Afghanistan 26519 74 Ecuador 25902 162 Dominican Republic 24898 232 Angola 24165 96 Tunisia 23000 204 Azerbaijan 22526 236 Czech Republic 21667 205 Democratic Republic of Congo 20550 29 Israel 20245 256 Madagascar 20000 84 Guatemala 19810 121 Sudan 19101 50 Sri Lanka 19027 88 Zimbabwe 18857 145 Zambia 18560 125 Cambodia 18308 116 Hungary 17976 183 Costa Rica 17440 352 Panama 17197 426 Nepal 16813 59 Honduras 16331 196 Mozambique 15976 57 Ghana 14458 53 Portugal 14281 139 Yemen 14000 53 Bolivia 13468 122 Singapore 12394 219 Puerto Rico (USA) 12327 350 Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) 12147 56 Malawi 12129 70 Belgium 11769 105 Netherlands 11603 69 United Arab Emirates 11193 229 Haiti 11046 102 Paraguay 10949 158 Syria 10599 60 Nicaragua 10569 171 Serbia 10500 148 Slovakia 10116 186 Jordan 10089 150 Kyrgyzstan 10030 167 Uruguay 9996 291 Georgia 9734 262 Greece 9632 90 New Zealand 9405 202 Tajikistan 9317 121 Bulgaria 9028 125 Burundi 8689 77 Senegal 8630 62 Niger 8525 44 Hong Kong 8438 115 Laos 8201 119 Austria 8188 95 Moldova 8054 227 Lithuania 7810 268 Mongolia 7773 266 Scotland (U.K.) 7672 143 Benin 7247 77 Switzerland 6923 84 South Sudan 6504 52 Burkina Faso 6251 34 Libya 6187 99 Lebanon 6012 120 Sweden 5400 55 Albania 5316 184 Mali 5209 33 Papua New Guinea 4864 63 Chad 4831 39 Latvia 4745 239 Togo 4422 62 Jamaica 4050 145 Bahrain 4028 301 Botswana 3960 193 Armenia 3880 130 Ireland 3786 81 Norway 3710 71 Trinidad and Tobago 3700 272 Swaziland 3610 282 Namibia 3560 144 Sierra Leone 3488 55 Denmark 3481 61 Croatia 3424 81 Gabon 3373 193 Kuwait 3200 92 Republic of Guinea 3110 26 Finland 3105 57 Macedonia 3034 147 Estonia 2819 215 Mauritius 2268 177 Liberia 2203 49 Lesotho 2073 92 Guyana 1967 259 Kosovo 1816 100 Mauritania 1768 44 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Federation 1722 73 Fiji 1555 174 Slovenia 1511 73 Northern Ireland (U.K.) 1460 78 Belize 1443 410 Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) 1434 286 Bahamas 1396 363 Oman 1300 36 Macau (China) 1292 200 Congo (Brazzaville) 1240 27 Maldives 1200 341 Qatar 1150 53 Gambia 1121 58 Bhutan 1119 145 Reunion (France) 1101 122 Montenegro 1083 174 Suriname 1000 183 Martinique (France) 969 245 Guadeloupe (France) 950 202 Barbados 924 322 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Republika Srpska 877 67 Guam (USA) 797 469 French Guiana (France) 791 298 Central African Republic 764 16 Seychelles 735 799 Cyprus 681 80 Luxembourg 631 112 St. Lucia 607 327 Djibouti 600 67 Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) 581 50 Virgin Islands (USA) 577 542 Malta 569 131 Brunei Darussalam 565 134 Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) 501 258 Equatorial Guinea 500 63 French Polynesia (France) 456 160 New Caledonia (France) 445 168 Grenada 424 398 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 412 378 Antigua and Barbuda 387 418 Curaçao (Netherlands) 348 225 St. Kitts and Nevis 334 607 Solomon Islands 271 46 Vanuatu 230 87 Bermuda (United Kingdom) 230 354 Cayman Islands (United Kingdom) 224 369 Dominica 219 300 American Samoa (USA) 214 382 Mayotte (France) 200 84 Sao Tome e Principe 178 87 Tonga 176 166 Northern Mariana Islands (USA) 175 267 Aruba (Netherlands) 170 165 Sint Maarten (Netherlands) 161 347 Jersey 154 152 Iceland 147 45 Kiribati 146 130 Comoros 145 19 Micronesia 132 127 Virgin Islands (United Kingdom) 119 425 Greenland (Denmark) 116 208 Guinea Bissau 92 5 Guernsey 83 127 Isle of Man (United Kingdom) 80 92 Palau 72 343 Andorra 55 72 Gibraltar (United Kingdom) 52 158 Anguilla (United Kingdom) 46 307 Marshall Islands 35 66 Monaco 28 74 Cook Islands (New Zealand) 25 109 Nauru 14 140 Faeroe Islands (Denmark) 11 23 Tuvalu 11 110 Liechtenstein 8 21 San Marino 2 6 Holy See (Vatican) 0 0

Does the United States’ high incarceration reduce crime?

Not much, if at all.

That’s the finding of a report released last year by the NYU Brennan Center. The study concluded that in general, higher incarceration rates do reduce crime, but the effect is diminishing.

In the 1990’s, rising incarceration accounted for approximately 6 percent of the reduction in property crime during that period. In the 2000’s, incarceration rates continued to rise, but their effect on crime had diminished, accounting for just one-fifth of one percent of the reduction in property crime seen that decade.

For violent crime, the report found that higher incarceration had no observable effect in the 1990’s or in the 2000’s.

How do these findings from the Brennan Center compare with the results of other studies?

The table below shows the results from 7 other studies on increased incarceration’s impact on crime (including one from Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame). At the high end of the estimates, only 4% of the reduction in violent crime and 2% of the reduction in property crime are attributed to increased incarceration.

“Table 5 summarizes past findings of national empirical studies on incarceration’s effect on crime along with the Brennan Center findings. Each study used data through the listed year to estimate the “elasticity” of crime with respect to incarceration (i.e. the percentage crime changes when incarceration changes by one percent). Simply put, the elasticity measures how incarceration affects crime. The authors applied previous studies’ elasticity estimates to updated crime and incarceration data through 2013 to impute incarceration’s effect on the drop in crime in the 1990s and the 2000s. These estimates are useful to compare findings across studies.”

The findings are consistent. The rise in incarceration during the 2000’s did little if anything to prevent crime.

However prison is not just about crime deterrence. It serves other purposes as well, such as rehabilitation.

Are U.S. prisons effective at rehabilitating prisoners?

Here are some statistics on recidivism, relapse into criminal behavior, from the Bureau of Justice.

43% of former inmates are arrested within a year of release.

By year three, 68% have been arrested at least once.

Only 23% of released prisoners make it five years without being arrested.

Why do so many former prisoners return to crime?

One obvious contributor is the difficulty in finding a job for someone with a criminal record. Often employers will ask about criminal history in a pre-employment screener, effectively disqualifying them from the start. Alhough doing so is now banned in some states.

A less well known cause are the fees that are often assessed against convicted criminals related to their incarceration, known as legal financial obligations, which compound their financial struggles upon release. Former inmates may leave prison owing $10’s of thousands to the state, with the threat of being sent back to prison if they don’t pay.

If the goal of rehabilitating prisoners is to prevent them from returning to a life of crime, releasing them deep in debt and poorly equipped to find a job hardly seems like smart policy.

Who’s interests are served by high incarceration?

Not only do the United States’ high incarceration rates not deter crime or rehabilitate prisoners, they are also very expensive. The corrections system costs nearly $80 billion a year in federal, state, and local tax dollars. It would seem the system is not only inhumane, it is also bad economic policy.

Who benefits?

Without speculating about the causes behind America’s rising incarceration, it’s still interesting to look at who’s incentives the system serves.

Private prison operators

One group that clearly benefits from more imprisonment are companies that operate private prisons.

As reported by ProPublica, there are currently about 130 private prisons in the U.S., which house about 157,000 prisoners. That’s a small percentage of the country’s total prison population, but it’s still big business. The two largest private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group, generated a combined revenue of $3.3 billion in 2010.

According to the Washington Post, the two companies have spend $25 million in lobbying dollars since 1989 and an additional $10 million on campaign contributions.

Prison suppliers

A while back, a friend of mine mentioned a company that holds a monopoly on the prison commissary supply market, a company he claimed was owned by the Bush Family.

The company is called Keefe Commissary. It’s not clear to me whether the Bush association is true or just a rumor, but a search in Google does turn up some red flags about the company’s pricing:

a long list of contracts that were awarded “no-bid” or without competition

involvement in a kick-back scandal (though Keefe was not accused of any wrongdoing)

and lots of unconfirmed accounts of overcharging prisoners for commissary items.

For example, see the [unsubstantiated] comment below from a 2013 reddit AMA post:

Keefe’s commissary prices are available for many prisons on the Bureau of Prisons website. A quick spot check backs up the claim that their ramen noodles are indeed overpriced.

Maruchan Roasted Chicken soup: Keefe Commissary ($0.60) vs. Walmart ($0.36)





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