There are currently 2.4 million people in federal and state prisons in the United States, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, or 1 in 100 American adults. This places the United States first in the world for incarceration rates. The United States has 5% of the world's population but 245% of the world's prisoners. Added to these are 4.8 million adults on parole and 70,792 minors in juvenile detention. In 2008 the breakdown for adults under penitentiary control was as follows: one in 18 men, one in 89 women, one in 11 African Americans (9.2%), one in 27 Latinos (3.7%), and one in 45 Caucasians (2.2%). Since 1980, the prison population has quadrupled, in part due to mandatory sentences for drug convictions. The rate of nonviolent crimes is declining, and only about 7.9% of federal inmates are in prison for violent crimes. The Bureau of Justice Statistics also reports, in a 2002 study, that of the 275,000 prisoners released in 1994, 67.5% were rearrested within 3 years and 51.8% returned to prison. As the prison population grows, incarceration has become a multi-billion dollar figure. dollar industry. Taxpayer money spent on top of prison that offers almost no rehabilitation has a great impact on American society and economic system. How does incarceration create lasting barriers to economic gain? Bruce Weston, a Princeton sociologist, estimates that prison records will reduce a man's earnings by 30% to 40% through less work and lower pay, by age 48 former inmates will have earned nearly $180,000 less in less than those who were not incarcerated. Two-thirds of adult males sent to prison were employed at the time of their sentencing...... half of the document ...... comprehensive overhaul of the correctional system, legalization of some drugs and reduction of the prison population. Most economists agree that, one way or another, correction spending needs to be reined in as our economy becomes unable to adequately meet demands. pdfhttps://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/184253.pdfhttp://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412693-The-Growth-and-Increasing-Cost-of-the-Federal-Prison-System. pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infectious_diseases_within_American_prisonshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/tina-maschi/elderly-inmates_b_1372189.htmlhttp://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42http:// www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter.htmlhttp://www.fnsa.org/v1n1/dieter.htmlhttp://nicic.gov/library/024411http://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/prison_and_the_economy/