Why does the "land of the free" have the largest prison population on the planet?

Question

The USA has millions of people incarcerated, about 1 in 110 Americans. About 1 in 46 are incarcerated or on probation or parole.

China has roughly the same number of people in prison as the United States, yet, China has over four times the population as the United States, making it about 1 in 600 people.

Even Russia has less prisoners per capita than the United States.

Update:

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Answer 1

Favorite Answer

Right wing Christian morality which has resulted in a lot of nonviolent people being put in jail.

Answer 2

In China people just disappear off the planet rather than being thrown into prison. And your math stinks.

Answer 3

Because in the age of the privatization of everything, there is big corporate money to be made in prisons.

Especially when you catch judges getting bribed.

Pennsylvania Judge Gets 'Life Sentence' For Prison Kickback Scheme

https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2011/08/1...

Answer 4

Land of the Free Market!

https://www.globalresearch.ca/profit-driven-prison...

Rehab don't pay the shareholders!

Answer 5

Freedom to commit crimes does not mean there aren't going to be consequences .

Answer 6

Execution is a more viable crime deterrent.

Answer 7

Gotta do sumpin with all those brown people. Can't send 'em back to afica, can't just shoot 'em, although we have been getting away with that a lot lately. Still, the easiest thing to do is just put them in cages. And use government money to pay our friends to guard them. They stay locked up and out of the way while me and my friends get rich off of the whole thing.

Answer 8

The land of the free is meant to be taken ironically bro.

Answer 9

Income inequality

Answer 10

Democrats that run Chicago