Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries
The incarceration rate of the People's Republic of China varies depending on sources and measures. According to the World Prison Brief, the rate for only sentenced prisoners is 118 per 100,000 (as of 2015). The rate for prisoners including estimations for the number of pre-trial detainees and those in administrative detention is 164 per 100,000 (as of 2015). In a 2010 interview Harry Wu, a U.S.-based human rights activist and ex-Chinese labor camp prisoner, estimates that "in the last 60 years, more than 40–50 million people" were in Chinese labor camps, but that period includes the mass incarcerations of the 1950s or the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and is not representative of modern China.
Prisoner Law
Incarceration rates in the United States have and continue to increase significantly. In comparison to the rest of the world, the United States holds a record for the highest number of incarcerated individuals. In 2015, the prison population estimated approximately 2.2 million people. There has been a rapid increase in the prison population since the 1980s. However, violent crime has significantly decreased from the years 1973 to 2003. In the United States, the majority of inmates are people of color and from low socioeconomic backgrounds.