That page also notes this shocker but it also quotes itself as a source at one point, so is it a decent source (?):
"The United States leads the world in total number of people incarcerated, with more than 2 million prisoners nationwide ... This number is equivalent to roughly 25% of the world's total prison population and leads to an incarceration rate of 629 people per 100,000"
It's just stating that the source said 2M, which combined with the total population yields 629. Nothing wrong with drawing a simple conclusion from two sources. The sources for the prisoner numbers are clearly labeled at the bottom of the page:
https://www.prisonstudies.org/research-publications?shs_term...
https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-popul...
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/appendix_countries_2021....
El Salvador 605 Rwanda 580 Turkmenistan 576 American Samoa (USA) 538 Cuba 510 United States of America 505
I'd still consider this horrible, but making a point is no reason to use dodgy sources.
From: https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_popul...
Not sure if other systems have a similar distinction?
For non US people: Jail is run by the local (usually county) government and is for minor(ish) crimes like writing bad checks, failing to appear in court, DUIs, reckless driving, things like that.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...
Indeed. Before the massive explosion in violence and disorder the US pioneered in the 60s the First World was substantially more peaceful. Less need for incarceration with much lower rates of crime.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-u-s-murder-rate-is-...
It took until 1980 for incarceration rates to start their upward climb. Ten years is a remarkably long time for a doubling of murder rates to take to show up in imprisonment.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-imprisoners-dilemma...
This is extremely dubious. The vast majority of people in prison are not there for murder. From a search, 15% of people in prison have a murder on their record. It's not TV.