From the corresponding Wikipedia article:

Comparison with other countries

Compared with other countries, the United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.

As of 2004, the incarceration rate in prison and jail, in the United States was 724 inmates per 100,000. For the most part, the U.S. rate is three to eight times that of the Western European nations and Canada. The rate in England and Wales, for example, is 139 persons imprisoned per 100,000 residents while in Norway it is 59 per 100,000. In many countries, it is common for prisoners to be paroled after serving as little as one third of their sentences. In the US most states strictly limit parole, requiring at least half of the sentence to be served, and for certain heinous crimes, there is no parole and the sentence must be served in full.

The prison population in China was 111 per 100,000 in 2001 (sentenced prisoners only), although this figure is highly disputed. Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu, who spent 19 years in forced-labor camps for criticizing the government, estimates that 16 to 20 million of his countrymen are incarcerated, including common criminals, political prisoners, and people in involuntary job placements. Even ten million prisoners would mean a rate of 793 per 100,000.

Conditions of imprisonment

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch raised concerns with prisoner rape and medical care for inmates. In a survey of 1,788 male inmates in midwestern prisons by Prison Journal, about 21% claimed they had been coerced or pressured into sexual activity during their incarceration and 7% claimed that they had been raped in their current facility.

In August 2003 a Harper's article by Wil S. Hylton estimated that "somewhere between 20 and 40 % of American prisoners are, at this very moment, infected with hepatitis C". Prisons may outsource medical care to private companies such as Correctional Medical Services, which, according to Hylton's research, try to minimize the amount of care given to prisoners in order to maximize profits.

Gang violence has also been identified as an issue within the prison system, as many gang members retain their affiliations when imprisoned. Identified gang members are often segregated from the general population of inmates, with different gangs being housed in separate units with the result that these gang members are imprisoned with their friends and criminal cohorts. However, some feel this has the effect of turning prisons into "institutions of higher criminal learning".

Cost

The United States spends an estimated $60 billion each year on corrections.

Almost 1 out of every 100 people in jail at any given time?! 20 to 40% of them infected with hepatitis C? 21% of them coerced into sexual activity during incarceration? Do these facts speak about our society, our definition of crime, our sentencing, our prisons, or all of the above? Isn't it time we do something about it?