Section IV: Global Comparisons
Crime and incarceration around the world:
U.S. vs. South Africa
- Incarceration rate per 100,000 population in South Africa under apartheid (1993) 609: 368
- Incarceration rate per 100,000 Black males in South Africa under apartheid (1993) 610: 851
- Incarceration rate per 100,000 African-American males in the United States under George W. Bush (2001) 611: 4,848
This page is an excerpt from The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (April 2003) by Peter Wagner, published by the Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative.
Footnotes
609 Marc Mauer, Americans Behind Bars: The International Use of Incarceration,1992-93.
610 Marc Mauer, Americans Behind Bars: The International Use of Incarceration,1992-93.
611 PPI, Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment, 2002.
Recommended Reading:
50 state incarceration profiles
All of our recent reports about prison/jail growth, racial disparities, and more, re-organized by state.
The rapid & unregulated growth of e-messaging in prisons
It can strengthen connections, but instead has been used to sap money from incarcerated people.
Incarceration and supervision by states
Probation and parole are the leading forms of mass punishment in America.
Prison Gerrymandering Project
We are leading the movement to protect our democracy from the Census Bureau's prison miscount.