The U. S. prison system is by a wide margin the largest in the world. It is thus often called an industry. The War On Drugs, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and Three-strikes laws have created the largest prison population on Earth totaling 2,2 Million incarcerated individuals in 2005.

Powerful interest groups, often called the Prison-industrial complex have have also helped to increase the U. S. incarceration rate to unseen heights. Additionally, the disproportional number of non-white inmates have led to accusations of racism in the application of the law. Fact is, that proportionally much more African American and Hispanic citizens end up in prisons than Whites. The U. S. not only has the highest prison population, also proportionally no other country incarcerates as many people as the United States.

See also

• List of U.S. state prisons

External links

• Human Rights Watch: Racial Disparities in U.S. Incarceration Rates
• Comparative International Rates of Incarceration
• November Coalition