number of prisoners in america

just read below from economist magazine. this is a great magazine by the way

shocking figure. however these figures do not give you the actual picture (you need to read on here), but it is really interesting (sad?) to learn that one third of black american has been locked up some point in their live

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America has less than 5% of the world’s people but almost 25% of its prisoners. It imprisons 756 people per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the world average. About one in every 31 adults is either in prison or on parole. Black men have a one-in-three chance of being imprisoned at some point in their lives. “A Leviathan unmatched in human history”, is how Glenn Loury, professor of social studies at Brown University, characterises America’s prison system.