During the 1980s, then President Ronald Reagan often chastised the then Communist government of the Soviet Union for having such a high number of prison inmates in proportion to their general population. Now that the Soviet “yoke” has been removed, Russia has greatly reduced its ratio of prisoners per capita. Although they still rank second world-wide, I applaud their efforts at reforming their penal system and laws.

The United States, in the meantime has caught up and surpassed the old Soviet Union for ratio of prisoners to general population. The USA, the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave now houses more prisoner per capita than any other nation on earth – at 715 per 100,000 the US holds more than the old USSR (NationMaster.com) and almost twice as many as second ranked Russia.

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