Louisiana's Addiction to Mass Incarceration by the Numbers

Abstract

The United States—the land of the free—has held the title for highest incarceration rate of any country in the world for fifteen consecutive years. Though the United States makes up total prison population. Moreover, the state of Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration of any country or U.S. state in the world, and it imprisons nonviolent offenders at much higher rates than other southern states. Louisiana’s reliance on imprisonment to reduce crime has had a disproportionate impact on minority and indigent communities and cost taxpayers billions of dollars.