Incarceration Nation
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A recent study by the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative of incarceration rates rated each US state as if it was an independent country. The statistics measure how many persons are incarcerated for every 100,000 citizens.
Among countries, El Salvador has the world’s highest incarnation rate with 1,086 incarcerated for every 100,000. No surprise there, I suppose.
But right behind El Salvador is Louisiana, with 1,067, then
Mississippi, with 1,020. Next in line were, Arkansas (912), Oklahoma (905), Alabama (808), Kentucky (889), Georgia (881), Tennessee (817), and South Dakota (812).
Next was Cuba (794), then Wyoming (785), Montana (758), Texas (751), Alaska (744), Indiana (721), Idaho (720), Missouri (713), Arizona (710), Florida (705), Virginia (679), West Virginia (674), Kansas (648), and New Mexico (647).
Only then did another country enter the statistics, with Rwanda (637), then Ohio (621) and Wisconsin (615). The US national average was 614.
Massachusetts has the lowest incarceration rate in the country.
Example countries are, Turkmenistan (576), Panama (499), Brazil (390), Costa Rica (343), Eswatini (243) (I have no idea where that is!)
The lowest incarceration rates in the world are, Gambia (22), Congo (33), Nigeria (35), Central African Republic (40), Yemen (35), Japan (36), lowest among developed countries.
Among countries that the US considers ‘bad actors’ we find Afghanistan (45), Syria (60), Angola (79), Hong Kong (106), Romania (124), Zimbabwe (138), Uganda (150), Serbia (162), China (165), Iraq (179), Albania (195), Venezuela (199), Iran (228). All have incarceration rates lower than any US state.
Draw your own conclusions from these statistics. Something is very wrong in this country.
