This is an alphabetical list of countries and some dependent territories and subnational areas which lays out the incarceration rate of each.[1]. Prisonpopulation rates from World Prison Brief. Incarceration rates and counts.

Context Explanation

Prisonpopulations in each U.S. state vary from one to the next, with the highest rates in Louisiana and Oklahoma. Overall, the incarceration rate in the U.S. has skyrocketed in the past decade—the prisonpopulation was a mere 200,000 in 1972, less than a tenth of today’s total.

Insight Material

Louisiana’s PrisonPopulation Has Continued to Go Up Under Gov.More than half of Louisiana inmates are held in local jails instead of state-run prisons. Note: Data as of 2023. Source: Department of Justice report on prisonpopulation released in September. This population total includes all people residing in Florida and counts them regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Citizens, permanent residents, temporary migrants, and undocumented workers.

Final Conclusion

Across the country, prisonpopulations spiked in the 1980s and 1990s as states adopted harsher punishments and “truth-in-sentencing” legislation. The latter requires most prisoners to spend their full sentence behind bars, without the possibility of parole. Female prisoners are twice as likely to self-harm compared to men.