These countries have the highest number of people in jail

The largest number of prisoners in the world are lodged in America's jails. According to Statista data, at the end of 2023, about 18 lakh people were in jails here. After this are China, Brazil and India. The number of people incarcerated in American prisons is incredibly high, so the problem of incarceration has also become a widely controversial issue because it affects the disadvantaged and minorities the most.

Apart from this, the number of private prisons in America has also increased. The US states with the highest number of prisoners in 2022 were Texas, California, and Florida.

El Salvador had the highest rate of prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants in the world last year, at 605 while Rwanda was in second place with 580 prisoners.

El Salvador was also ranked as the most dangerous country in terms of murders in 2023, with a murder rate of 52 per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the Global Prison Trends report released last year, 93 percent of the prisoners around the world are men and seven percent are women. Since 2000, the percentage of female prisoners has increased by 60 percent and that of males by 22 percent. Poverty is the main reason for the increase in their numbers in almost every region of the world.

Globally, approximately 23 million children are affected either directly or by having a parent in prison. This figure is one percent of the total child population of the world. An estimated more than 2.5 lakh children were in criminal justice custody in 2020. Apart from this, more than 19,000 children are living in jail with their mothers. The number of elderly prisoners is highest in Japan, whose age is between 50-70 years. There are approximately half a million foreign nationals in prisons around the world, which is five percent of the global prison population. Their number is high in Monaco, United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, Qatar and Macau city of China.