Unlocking America

In the United States, in 1970 there were fewer than 200,000 people in prison. By 2006, there were about 1,600,000 in state and federal prisons. It has grown by 8 times. Add another 750,000 in the nation's jails, and today the total number imprisoned in the U.S. on any given day is 2,200,000. The number continues to grow. The accompanying note, Land of the Free, compares the U.S. to the all the other countries in the world.

A new report Unlocking America [pdf] published Monday describes the causes and consequences.