U.S. is Home to 5% of World's Population but 25% of its Prisoners
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the US is home to a
quarter of the world's prison population despite having only 5% of
the world's population. They made the additional findings:
- US incarceration is 370% higher than the U.K., 800% higher than Germany,
57% higher than Russia
- 90% of prisoners are incarcerated because of violations of State law (such
as drug offenses, assault, DWI, misdemeanors, felonies, etc)
- The US prison population rose 425% between 1978 and 2009
- $80 billion is spent every year to keep people in jail
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The Wall Street Journal article can be found
here
In New York, about 81,000 people are incarcerated for violations of State
law. Despite massive incarceration, crime remains a constant problem.
Too often, people accused of a crime miss critical opportunities to avoid
a jail sentence. These opportunities include fighting the criminal case
and exploring plea bargains that might avoid a long jail sentence. A recent
study found that 82% of defendants used public defenders.
An article by mother jones found a correlation between inadequate representation and over-burdened
public defenders.
