The American Prospect's Paul Waldman: The Lunacy of the American Incarceration Rate Shown in Several Charts

Lady Justice

In a chart-filled article for The American Prospect, Paul Waldman examines the reasons behind the statistic that nearly 3% of the American population are under some form of legal punishment, either imprisonment, parole, or probation.

The article and charts are linked below.

Paul Waldman: Charts Showing the Craziness of the American Incarceration Rate

"At the end of 2011, there were 2.2 million Americans incarcerated, 854,000 on parole, and almost 4 million on probation, meaning just under 7 million Americans—or one out of every 34 adults—were being supervised by the criminal-justice system."

---Paul Waldman, The American Prospect