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people behind bars in the U.S.
The U.S. incarceration rate is out of control.
The United States incarceration rate is 698 per 100,000 people, the highest in the world by far. It is 4x greater than the country with the 2nd highest incarceration rate. Despite having only 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. has 25% of the world’s prison population. The scale of America’s criminal justice system is alarming, especially when considering how ineffective it is at rehabilitation. We have asked the police to solve problems like addiction, mental health, and poverty. This is unfair to the police, to the people suffering, and to our communities as a whole.