Some frightening stats here:
1 of 99.1 Americans is in jail (nearly 3 million)
$49 billion spent on incarceration in 2007 (up from $11 billion in 1987)
6.8% – the average percent of budget spent by states on incarceration
The United States incarcerates more people than any other nation.
(per capita incarceration is also likely much higher)
The U.S. also is among the world leaders in capital punishment.
That’s because there’s money in corrections.
What will be very interesting in the coming years is what happens when states can no longer afford to pay for this network of prisons? Will they reduce sentences and put fewer people behind bars or will they tax the snot of out the American public?