Various Prison Statistics
| - Since 1975, the U.S. rate of incarceration has gone up over 450%. |
| - In The U.S., the adult population presently under correctional control exceeds 6.6 million. |
| - According to U.S. Department of Justice data: from 1978 to 1996, the number of violent offenders doubled, the number of non-violent offenders tripled, and the number of drug offenders increased sevenfold. |
| - The U.S. prison population now holds over 1 million non-violent prisoners; women represent the fastest growing and least violent segment of prison populations. |
| - According to StatsCan, violent crimes accounted for less than 12% of Canadian crime in 2002. |
| - Though the total amount of charges decreased from 1998 to 2002 in Canada, drug charges increased by over 22%. |
| - In Canada, the total number of cases in Youth Criminal Court decreased by 11,521 from 1997 to 2001, though the numbers of drug charges for youths increased by 48% (not including those under the Young Offenders Act). |
| - In Canada, for the year 2000, 31,500 adults on average were in a federal penitentiary or in a provincial or territorial jail; in addition, there were 119,900 adult offenders in some phase of the correctional system. |
| - The (increasing) use of solitary confinement and isolation techniques has not been studied for its long-term psychological impact, though many prisoners have described its psychopathological effects. |