(Washington, DC, December 5, 2007) – New US government figures showing that the United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country highlight the need to consider alternative criminal justice policies, Human Rights Watch said today.

Statistics released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), a branch of the US Department of Justice, show that at the end of 2006, more than 2.25 million persons were incarcerated in US prisons and jails, an all-time high. This number represents an incarceration rate of 751 per 100,000 US residents, the highest such rate in the world. By contrast, the United Kingdom’s incarceration rate is 148 per 100,000 residents; the rate in Canada is 107; and in France it is 85. The US rate is also substantially higher than that of Libya (217 per 100,000), Iran (212), and China (119).

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Tags | Criminal Justice, Incarceration, Jails, Prison, Social Justice