Criminal justice by the numbers

Published October 05, 2008 @ 05:51PM PT

The American criminal justice system is a sprawling empire that touches millions of lives across the country. Here are some numbers:

Number of people in prison and jails around the world: 9.25 million

Percentage of the world's prisoners who are in U.S. prisons and jails: 27

Percentage of Americans in prison or jail: 1

Percentage of Americans in prison or jail or on parole or probation: 3.2

Percentage of U.S. prisoners who are women: 6.6

Percentage of U.S. prisoners who are African-American men: 35.5

Percentage of U.S. prisoners who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group: 64

Percentage of African-Americans in prison or jail: 4.6

Percentage of black South Africans in prison under apartheid in 1993: .08

Percentage of children in the U.S. with a parent in prison: 2.3

Chance that an American will go to prison during their lifetime: 6.6%

Chance that an African-American man will go to prison during his life: 32%

Chance that a released prisoner will be rearrested within 3 years: 67.5%

Percentage of U.S. prisoners with mental health problems: 56

Percentage of male U.S. prisoners with HIV or AIDS: 1.6

Percentage of female U.S. prisoners with HIV or AIDS: 2.4

Decline in AIDS cases in U.S. prison population from 2006 to 2005: 3.1%

Estimated percentage of U.S. prisoners with Hepatitis C: 33

Amount spent on criminal justice (police, courts and prisons) in the U.S. in 2005: $204 billion

Amount spent per capita in the U.S.: $660

Increase in criminal justice expenditures by local governments, 1982 to 2005: 396%

Increase in criminal justice expenditures by state governments, 1982 to 2005: 510%

Increase in criminal justice expenditures by U.S. federal government, 1982 to 2005: 730%

Executions around the world in 2005, 2006 and 2007: 2,148, 1,591, 1,252

Executions in the U.S. in 2005, 2006 and 2007: 60, 53, 42

Percentage of people executed in the U.S. since 1976 who were African-American: 34

Percentage of U.S. population that is African-American: 12.3

White District Attorneys in death penalty states: 1,794

African-American and Hispanic District Attorneys in death penalty states: 44

Defendants who served time on death row and were later proven innocent by DNA testing: 17

People exonerated by DNA testing after serving time for crimes they didn't commit: 222

Percentage of DNA exonerations that involved eyewitness misidentifications: 77

Percentage that involved a false confession: 25

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Author

Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.