This document provides facts about the US prison population and incarceration rates: - Between 1980 and 2008, the US prison population quadrupled from 500,000 to 2.3 million. - In 2002, 1 in every 143 Americans was in jail or prison. - The US has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. - African Americans and Hispanics make up 25% of the US population and 58% of the prison population. - Corrections costs the US approximately $70 billion annually.