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Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for July 18, 2017
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
July 18, 2017: At the end of 2015, the Justice Department reported that 2,173,000 Americans were either in prison or a local jail.[1]
The Brookings Institution says that “there is now widespread, bipartisan agreement that mass incarceration is a huge problem in the United States.”[2] And it goes beyond those currently in prison. As shown in the table here, which includes numbers for those on parole and probation, a total of 6,741,400 Americans (2.7 percent of the adult population) are currently ensnared in our correctional systems.[3]
| Number of people | |
|---|---|
| Probation | 3,789,800 |
| Prison | 1,526,800 |
| Parole | 870,500 |
| Local jail | 728,200 |
In both raw numbers and as a share of the population, America imprisons more people than any other nation in the world. One out of every 37 Americans is currently under the supervision of our correctional institutions.
The share of Americans in prison has grown dramatically over the past several decades. One of the driving factors has been the war on drugs. Brookings notes that “[d]rug crimes have been the predominant reason for new admissions into state and federal prisons in recent decades." However, the institution adds, "[R]olling back the war on drugs would not … totally solve the problem of mass incarceration.”[2]
It’s important to recognize that the figures above reflect only the current prison population. Statistics compiled by The Sentencing Project suggest that one out of every nine men and one out of every 56 women will spend time in prison during their lifetime. For minorities, the figures are even more depressing: One out of every three black men are likely to spend some time in prison.[4]
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
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- July 14, 2017 – 33 states have enacted voter ID requirements
- July 13, 2017 – 49 hours of streaming video content watched in average OTT home in a month
- July 12, 2017 – 20 Republican senators from states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare
- July 11, 2017 – 65 percent of the time, Justice Kennedy voted with liberals on ideological 5-4 decisions over past three years
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
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Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Prisoners in 2015," December 29, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Brookings Institution, "Drug offenders in American prisons: The critical distinction between stock and flow," November 25, 2015
- ↑ International Centre of Prison Studies, "World Prison Population List (Tenth Edition)," accessed July 17, 2017
- ↑ The Sentencing Project, "Trends in U.S. Corrections," January 2016
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