American Prisons

Radley Balko has a sobering note that, last year, the US gained more than 62,000 prisoners. Worst part of it: the US incarceration rate for black men is over five times higher than South Africa's incarceration rate for black men at the time of apartheid. Think about that. A black man in America today is five times more likely to be behind bars than he would have been if he lived in South Africa in the late 80's.