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There is no other country in the world that has imprisoned more people of color than the United States. The entire population of the United States only represents five percent of the world’s population and over twenty percent of the world’s prison population. Incarcerating poor people in large numbers has become big business for the United States. As a matter of fact, more African American males are locked up in prisons throughout the United States than were slaves in 1850. This is a larger prison population than that of the top 35 European countries combined.

The United States incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more people than Germany, and twelve times more than Japan. The business of incarceration is major and many people benefit from the misery of others. Some states spend over a billion dollars a year on their correctional system. This does not include the tens of billions of dollars spent by the federal government to police, prosecute, and imprison individuals. Everybody understands that some people need to be locked up if they commit a violent crime against another person. However, locking people up in mass numbers for nonviolent crimes is an atrocity against humanity.

(Source: azspot)