From: Human Rights Watch:
[A]t at the end of 2006, more than 2.25 million persons were incarcerated in US prisons and jails, an all-time high. This number represents an incarceration rate of 751 per 100,000 US residents, the highest such rate in the world. By contrast, the United Kingdom’s incarceration rate is 148 per 100,000 residents; the rate in Canada is 107; and in France it is 85. The US rate is also substantially higher than that of Libya (217 per 100,000), Iran (212), and China (119)….
The new BJS figures also show sharp racial disparities in US incarceration rates, with black men incarcerated at a rate 6.2 times higher than white men.
Exceptionally criminal? Exceptionally vengeful? Exceptionally racist? Whatever the explanation ((Yes, yes: I know.)), it certainly makes a mockery of US claims to be the “land of the free”.