Prison

A prison is a place in which people are confined and deprived of a range of liberties. Prisons conventionally are institutions authorized by governments and forming part of a country's criminal justice system, or as facilities for holding prisoners of war. A prison system is the organizational arrangement of the provision and operation of prisons.

World prison populations

At least nine million people are imprisoned worldwide, though given under-reporting or lack of statistics for certain (often repressive) countries the number is likely much higher. The prison population in most countries increased significantly beginning in the 1990s.

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By country, the United States prison population is the world's largest in absolute terms, at more than 1.3 million. Both Russia and China (with population 4 times that of the USA) also had prison populations of 1 million or more in 2002. No data is available for North Korea. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r188.pdf, http://www.prisonstudies.org/

Related Topics:
United States prison population - Russia - China - North Korea

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Rwanda has the largest proportion of its population in prison where, as of 2002, over 100,000 people (out of a total populace of some 8 million) were held on suspicion of participation in the 1994 genocide. The USA is second largest in relative numbers with 701 people per 100,000 incarcerated, and the proportion in Russia is similar.

Related Topics:
Rwanda - 2002 - 1994 genocide

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The UK had 73,000 inmates in its facilities in 2003, with France and Germany having a similar number.

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