This is just crazy. It must be a huge drain on their society - 1% locked up and probably more than another 1% dedicated to putting them there, keeping them their and supporting the people who do this.

One in 100 US adults behind bars: study

http://news.smh.com.au/one-in-100-us-adults-behind-bars-study/20080229-1vr6.html

More than one in 100 adults are now behind bars in the United States, home to the world's largest penal population, with a startling one in nine young black men incarcerated, a study showed Thursday.

The prison and jail population rose by 25,000 to 2.3 million last year, out of a US adult population of 230 million, bringing the incarceration rate to one in 99.1 for the first time in US history, the Pew Center on the States said.

By comparison, China, with a population of one billion people, was second in the world with 1.5 million inmates, followed by Russia with 890,000 people in the slammer, the study said.