Land of the Free*

The New York Times reported today that over 1% of Americans are incarcerated. About 1 in 99.1 adults are in jail

Justice may be blind, but our judicial system certainly is not:

1 in 9 black men 20-34 years old is in prison
1 in 355 white women 35-39 years old is in prison

Maybe we should just get a clue from Norway...

The US spent about $49 Billion on corrections in 2007, almost $24,000 per inmate. About 7% of states' budgets are spent on incarceration.

I wonder how much we spend to lock up individuals elsewhere - Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and all the other "black sites" we have around the world...