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• The Prison Policy Initiative reported that, based on data from 2020 and 2021, Arizona would have the eighth highest incarceration rate in the world if rated as an independent state. The state has 868 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. Other measures also rate Arizona highly for incarceration rates.
• Other agencies measure incarceration rates in different ways at different times. Therefore, it is difficult to find one definitive number.

See the source of this fact check

Arizona’s Democratic Candidate in Recent Debate Julie Gannigle argued that the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office needed criminal justice reform, saying its incarceration rate was “out of the national norm.”

“If Arizona were a country, it would be the eighth largest inmate in the world,” Gunigl said during a televised debate on Sept. 15. Arizona PBS.

So, does Arizona rank eighth for the highest incarceration rates in the United States and the world?

When PolitiFact contacted Gunnigle, she told us data From the Prison Policy Initiative, a criminal justice-oriented public policy think tank. State prisons, local prisons, federal prisons and other incarceration systems in Arizona have 868 incarceration per 100,000 people, making him the eighth-highest of all 50 states and the world combined. is showing.

In many ways, the United States leads the world in incarceration rates. However, comparing the numbers is complicated by the different methodologies. Countries set prisons and prison sentences in different ways. Experts say it’s fine to compare incarceration rates when countries have similar sentencing conditions.

“As long as the boundaries between prisons and jail terms are consistent, there is nothing grossly misleading about cross-border comparisons of state-level and national-level incarceration rates,” says UC Berkeley Law School. the professor said. franklin jimling Said.

The Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics imprisonment rate As the number of inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents held in state or federal prisons or local prisons.

We are familiar with incarceration rates. In August 2015, PolitiFact Virginia rated: mostly true Claims that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the highest proportion of the population in prison compared to other countries. In 2013, the Center for International Prison Research at the University of London, which tracks prison populations in more than 200 countries and territories, reported that the United States had the highest prison population rate in the world with 716 inmates per 100,000 people. bottom. In 2015, the group ranked the United States second in the world, with 698 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants.

Prison Policy Initiative, 2018 report When we compiled the US data. At the time, federal statistics gleaned from the World Prison Brief showed 642 people were incarcerated per 100,000 population, more than any other country in the world.

According to current estimates based on the US Census Bureau’s 2020 estimates, the US prison population rate is 505 per 100,000 of the country’s population.

But Arizona is no outlier among US states. If all US states were rated as independent nations, 24 states would have the highest incarceration rates of any other country in the world.

“Arizona is just one of many other states in the United States,” he said. Alfred Blumsteina professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies criminal justice policy.

The US is far ahead of the rest of the world

Data from the Prison Policy Initiative reveal that “the United States is well ahead of the rest of the world and its incarceration rates.” It seems to me that there is Comparing Arizona to other states is far more meaningful, and it still ranks eighth, putting the United States out of the range of the rest of the world.

Prison Policy Initiative Spokesperson Wanda Bertram He said the organization’s research methodology was more comprehensive than other reports on criminal justice statistics.

“When you put together the incarceration rates, it’s not just prisons,” Bertram said. “We also count detention rates in local prisons, state detention rates in federal prisons. And we count juvenile detention and immigration detention.”

Arizona has the eighth highest incarceration rate per capita in the world when compared to NATO member states.

“Eighth-highest means that if every state in the United States were a country, and the United States was still a country, it would have the eighth-highest incarceration rate in the world,” Bertram said. If the states were separated from the United States today, they would have the highest incarceration rates in the world, even higher than in the United States.”

Arizona is an outlier when it comes to incarceration rates per 100,000 population when compared to other stable democracies such as European Union member states and Canada.

According to the Justice Department, Department of Justice Program Arizona had 760 people in local prisons and prisons per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages, according to 2019 statistics for the U.S. Correctional Population. Government agencies include the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Annual Probation Surveys, Annual Parole Surveys, National Prison Statistics Program, 2019 Prison Census, and U.S. Census Bureau, Estimated Resident Population after the January 1, 2020 Census. We reported these findings using information from.

Ganigur promised to conduct what she called a “full audit” of the office and expand the conversion program. , a program to keep them out of prison, which often includes rehabilitation.)

Gunnigle’s opponent, Rachel Mitchell, the incumbent county attorney appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey in April, did not address Gunnigle’s allegations directly.

“I want to look at the case with an open mind,” Mitchell said at the debate.

our ruling

“If Arizona were a country, it would be the eighth-largest internment camp in the world,” said Gunigl.

The numbers back her up. Arizona has 868 inmates per 100,000 of her inhabitants in state, local, federal and other incarceration systems, ranking her eighth among all U.S. states and the world. Arizona ranks her eighth in the world by prison policy initiatives, but other agencies measure incarceration rates in different ways at different times. So finding a definitive figure for her is difficult.

I would argue that this claim is mostly correct.

our sources

• Arizona PBS at Arizona State University, Horizon Maricopa County Lawyers DebateSeptember 15, 2022
• telephone interview with Julie GannigleOctober 20, 2022
• Bureau of Justice Statistics Glossary
• POLITIFACT Virginia, “Webb says US has the highest incarceration rate in the world,” August 10, 2015
• Email interview with professor at Carnegie Mellon University Alfred Blumstein1 November 2022
• Prison Policy Initiative, State of Imprisonment: Global Context 2021September 2021
• Telephone interview with a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative Wanda BertramNovember 3
• Institute of Crime and Justice Policy, Bierbeck, University of London, World Prison Brief for the United States
• Bureau of Justice Statistics 2020 Prisoners – Statistical TableDecember 2021
• Email interview with professor at University of California, Berkeley franklin jimlingOctober 26, 2022