Infographic: Mapping Europe’s Incarcerated (2024)

FAQs

What country has the highest rate of incarceration? ›

The United States leads the world in total number of people incarcerated, with more than 2 million prisoners nationwide (per data released in October 2021 by World Prison Brief).

People of color—particularly African Americans—experience imprisonment at a far higher rate than whites. The experience of imprisonment is concentrated among people with lower levels of education, wealth, and income but racial disparities in imprisonment exist across all socioeconomic groups.

Increased sentencing laws

Even though there are other countries that commit more inmates to prison annually, the fact that the United States keeps their prisoners longer causes the total rate to become higher.

Beef, soybeans, corn and wheat are just some of the products that have found their way into consumer markets from prison farms and barns.

Countries with the highest prison population are the United Kingdom and Poland (with over 93,000 and over 73,000 detainees respectively) followed by France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, whose prison systems host around 64,000 detainees each.

Correctional facilities in Norway focus on maintaining custody of the offender and attempting to make them functioning members of society. Norway's prison system is renowned as one of the most effective and humane in the world.

The two Best States for corrections are New Hampshire and Maine , which both also rank in the top three for safety. New Hampshire also ranks in the top 10 overall, as do Massachusetts and Utah , the fourth and fifth Best States for corrections, respectively.

It's true that police, prosecutors, and judges continue to punish people harshly for nothing more than drug possession. Drug offenses still account for the incarceration of over 360,000 people, and drug convictions remain a defining feature of the federal prison system.

Texas is home to the greatest number of prisons and jails in the USA. With 313 prisons it has 110% more places of incarceration than colleges.

A public prison is not a profit-generating entity. The end goal is to house incarcerated individuals in an attempt to rehabilitate them or remove them from the streets. A private prison, on the other hand, is run by a corporation. That corporation's end goal is to profit from anything it deals in.

Where does the food for prisons come from? ›

Much about food in prisons, as with institutions like hospitals and universities, has been centralized and industrialized: The system currently contracts with large private companies to provide bulk amounts of ultra-processed foods, mostly starches and dehydrated veggies.

Texas has an incarceration rate of 840 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democratic country on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Texas and why.

Norway has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world at 20% rearrested within 5 years versus 76.6% in the US. Prisons in Norway and the Norwegian criminal justice system focus on restorative justice and rehabilitating prisoners rather than punishment.

El Salvador's La Esperanza prison was built for 10,000 inmates but, due to massive overcrowding, now holds more than 33,000 inmates currently – one of the world's largest prison populations.