One of Five in Jail is American

Here's an article that hasn't graced one US newspaper as yet... though even the major British papers have noted the troubling findngs as they relate to the UK.

Despite representing less than five percent of the world's population, more than twenty percent of the world's imprisoned populaiton are languishing in US jails.

The United States leads the world in putting criminals in jail, according to new figures.

The International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College, London, said on Monday that the United States detains 714 prisoners per 100,000 people.

The US has topped the centre's list since 2000.

"The US has managed in 200 years to reach two million prisoners," said Anton Shelupanov, research associate at the International Centre for Prison Studies. "It's a very concerning rate of growth."

The US total represents 22% of the nine million prisoners reportedly held throughout the world, he added.

Shelupanov told Aljazeera.net that the growth in the number of prisoners in US jails is down to the US's tough penal policy.


This comes at a time when the US is exporting this growth industry to Iraq:

The United States is spending $50 million to build new prisons to house the thousands of suspected fighters its forces are capturing in Iraq.

With anti-US violence in Iraq continuing to rage, American forces are now holding more than 10,000 people they classify as "security detainees" in their three main jails in Iraq.

This is nearly double the number they held a year ago.