Let’s do the numbers

Total number of adults incarcerated in America: 2.3 million

Total number of adults incarcerated in China: 1.5 million

Rank of U.S. incarceration rate among all nations: 1

Rank of South’s incarceration rate among all U.S. regions: 1

Percent increase in South’s incarceration rate in 2007 alone: 2.8

Rank of Texas’ incarceration rate among all U.S. states.: 1

Year in which Florida is expected to run out of prison space: 2009

Percent of American adults in prison or jail: 1

Percent of all men age 18 or older: 2

Percent of white men age 18 or older: 0.9

Percent of Hispanic men age 18 or older: 3

Percent of black men age 18 or older: 7

Percent of black men age 20 to 34: 11

Percent of white women age 35 to 39: 0.3

Percent of Hispanic women age 35 to 39: 0.4

Percent of black women age 35 to 39: 1

Amount states spent on corrections in 2007 alone: $49 billion

Percent which that amount has increased over the past 20 years, adjusted to 2007 dollars: 127

Percent increase in adjusted spending on higher education over that same period: 21

Minimum amount Texas is expected to save over the next two years from prison reforms that expand drug treatment and change parole practices: $210 million

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Statistics taken from “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008” by The Pew Center on the States, available online here.