From the NYT:

For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults are behind bars, according to a new report.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million, after three decades of growth that has seen the prison population nearly triple. Another 723,000 people are in local jails.

The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 adult Hispanic men is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 adult black men is, too, as is one in nine black men ages 20 to 34.

China has 1.5 million people in prison -- and with 1.3 billion people, slightly more than four times the population of the U.S.

When you're out-incarcerating an authoritarian country like China, I can only say, "wow."

From The Globe and Mail:

An attempt to seize a Toronto freelance writer's notes has erupted into a court battle pitting journalistic principle against the fate of a man accused of first-degree murder.

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