U. S. Has Highest Incarceration Rate in World

While crime rates declined nationally by about 25 percent from 1988-2008, the number of incarcerated drug offenders has increased twelvefold since 1980.

By the end of 2008, more than 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole - about one in every 31 U.S. adults, compared with one in every 77 adults in 1982, according to a 2009 report from the Pew Center on the States.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in U.S. federal and state prisons, and county jails at year-end 2011 - about 0.7% of adults in the U.S., housed in some 1,800 prisons and 3,000 jails.

Additionally, 4,814,200 adults at year-end 2011 were on probation or parole. In total, 6,977,700 adults were under correctional supervision - about 2.9% of adults in the U.S. population.

The United States has less than 5% of the world's population and approximately 23% of the world's prison and jail population.

In 2008, one out of 18 men, one in 89 women, one in 11 African-Americans (9.2 percent), one in 27 Latinos (3.7 percent), and one in 45 Caucasians (2.2 percent) were under correctional control.