The United States of America: An Incarceration Nation

The United States just completed participation in the 2024 Olympic Games. As a nation we pride ourselves in being the best at everything and, indeed, the US won more medals than any other nation.

We also get the prize for locking up more people per capita than any other developed nation. That amounts to 1.9 million people in 2024. Almost a quarter of those are people who have yet to be convicted of a crime. It gets worse if you consider there are 2.9 million people on probation and another 800,000 on parole. The criminal justice system has it’s grips on a staggering number of citizens.

The problem is complex, especially since the rate of crime is actually diminishing. In many ways the massive incarceration of Americans has more to do with getting politicians elected than it does keeping our country safe. Candidates who boast that they are “tough on crime” tend to get attention at the polls. But that approach has dubious results.

The cost of running prisons and jails is hard to nail down. Statistics range from $84 billion all the way to $182 billion annually. A significant portion of those costs go to private firms who provide services to the prison system.

The mass incarceration of Americans raises a lot of questions. What is driving the dramatic increase in incarceration rates over the last forty years? Does the high rate of imprisonment make us safer? Are Americans more prone to criminal activity than people from other nations? Why do we incarcerate so many people who have not even been convicted of a crime? Is the falling crime rate a result of mass incarceration or is it happening despite the falling rate of crime? Finally, why are people of color incarcerated at shockingly higher rates than caucasians?

As Americans we should be looking to successfully compete in areas that are more meaningful than just athletics. Ranking first place in the incarceration of citizenry, both in absolute numbers as well as per capita, is not such a category.