Top 10 Countries With The Most Prisoners 2024

One of the factors stifling global and even development is the global crime rate. With adequate social infrastructure and technological advancement, it will be puzzling how the United States will make the list and even rank first among the top 10 countries with the most prisoners in 2024.

Corruption and crime are holding back the growth of many nations around the world. They are unable to devise a plan that will effectively address these problems and bring an end to them for good.

It is possible to argue that they are still motivated to send criminals and lawbreakers to their proper place in prison despite this enormous difficulty. The number of people convicted varies from country to country because some states have lower crime rates than others.

Top 10 Countries With The Most Inmates

1. United States

The United States of America is the nation with the most prisoners in the world, with over 2 million in their bay. It goes without saying that the population of the United States accounts for 4.25 percent of the world's total.

The US government will have to pay for the construction of jails to house these many criminals. It is possible to anticipate that the government will spend more money on prisoners than it has in the past, with a total of 2,239,751.

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Even though it has remained relatively constant over the past few years, the longer-term trend for violent crime in the United States has typically been downward since the 1990s, according to data from the FBI.

The statistics frequently include rape, assault, robbery, and murder, despite the fact that police departments in the United States define violent crime in slightly different ways. In 2000, there were more than 500 violent crimes per 100,000 people. In 2022, that number fell to less than 400.

Their Prison Policy says that the fact that the United States has thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal criminal justice systems rather than just one makes things even more complicated.

2. China

We all know that China has more than a billion people, making it the world's most populous nation. Additionally, their inclusion on the list of the top ten nations with the most prisoners in the world shouldn't come as a surprise.

With an estimated 1.7 million inmates (USA), China is said to have the second-highest jail population after the United States, according to Wikipedia. The per capita incarceration rate in the nation is 121 per 100,000 people.

China continued to use the death penalty with the approval of their Supreme People's Court, despite recent imprisonments that did not comply with international standards.

In addition, there is a death penalty with a reprieve that allows the sentence to be postponed until the defendant commits another serious offense within two years of being incarcerated.

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Some people have advocated for the government to use community correction more frequently and for the Ministry of Justice to oversee administrative detainees as a means of preventing the police from acquiring an excessive amount of authority.

3. Brazil

Serious overcrowding is perhaps the most fundamental and pervasive problem afflicting Brazil's correctional system. Authorities in charge of national prisons anticipated that the country's jails would require an additional 50,934 spaces to accommodate the current inmate population.

The discrepancy between the capacity that is available and the actual number of detainees has only grown worse since then, despite some recent efforts to address the issue.

By 1997, the official figure for the prison capacity gap was 96,010. This was due to the rise in the number of inmates. To put it another way, each prison has 2.3 inmates who are eligible to occupy the available space.

4. India

Despite having a lower prisoner rate than the aforementioned nations, India still lacks adequate facilities to house them. The ratio of prisoners to capacity in some prisons has increased by more than 250 percent.

For more than two years, many inmates have been awaiting trials without success. In addition, prison facilities are subpar. Over the years, a number of issues have been brought to the attention of critics, including prison overcrowding, the prolonged detention of inmates awaiting trial, substandard housing, a lack of therapeutic programs, and allegations of prisoners' inattention and even inhumane behavior.

5. Russia

Russia is also one of the nations with the most prisoners, with over 475,009 people in prison. There were 705 corrective colonies in Russia's administrative divisions in 2019 (excluding seven corrective colonies for prisoners serving life sentences). There were 211 pre-trial facilities, 23 facilities for juveniles, and 8 prisons in 2019.

Russia's prisons are managed by the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN). The FSIN's primary responsibilities include ensuring that those who have been convicted of crimes complete their sentences and keeping those who have been charged with crimes in custody. The FSIN is also in charge of the rights and physical well-being of the detainees, as required by Russian law.

6. Thailand

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With 309,282 inmates in 2023, Thailand is also one of the nations with the most prisoners in the world. It is extremely troubling that there are approximately 465 inmates for every 100,000 citizens. Inmates in this nation participate in a wide range of activities.

For instance, they might fight with the sole purpose of gaining money or even fame. Their sentences can sometimes be reduced by fighting. Overcrowding is cited as the most pressing issue facing Thai prisoners by a large number of former inmates.

Considering that conservative international standards call for each prisoner to have 2.25 square meters of surface area for sleeping, the current occupancy rate in Thai prisons is 224%.

Detainees must get 1.1 square meters of area for female inmates and 1.2 square meters for male inmates, according to Thailand’s Department of Corrections. Even with this widely despised norm, the overall occupancy rate of 145% still indicates an overpopulation problem (FIDH, Behind the Wall p. 12 – link to the full report is provided at the end of the article).

7. Turkey

Turkey is said to house over 281, 094 prisoners which makes it one of the countries with the most prisoners in the world. The capacity of its jails doesn’t seem to be able to adequately accommodate inmates at the moment, which is the most troubling element.

When it comes to the way people are detained, Turkey has been accused of violating human rights on numerous occasions throughout the years. Children have also occasionally been unlawfully detained.

This has made them vulnerable to cruel treatment like rape and torture. Similar problems have plagued the majority of the nation’s prisons for a number of years. The country is also one of five countries within the Council of Europe with the highest rates of suicides in prison.

Physical assaults, beatings, bare-chested searches, interference with access to healthcare, and other arbitrary limitations are on the rise. The steady increase in the jail population since the middle of the 2000s has persisted, according to European organizations like the Anti-Torture Committee, despite the growth of the prison estate and increased use of conditional release.

8. Indonesia

Indonesia comes in at number eight on our list of nations with the most prisoners worldwide. Despite its reputation for carrying out drug-related executions, this nation's prison population has increased by approximately one hundred percent over the past ten years.

It's important to keep in mind that the vast majority of these detainees are awaiting trial because they haven't been found guilty yet. Regarding this particular problem, experts from all over the world and the government are extremely concerned.

In 2020, a former prisoner's Twitter thread revealed the uglier side of Indonesia's jail system, which led to criticism of the government.

9. Mexico

Mexico is one of the countries with the most prisoners in the world. Overcrowding is a well-known problem in Mexican prisons, where 46% of those detained share a cell with at least five other inmates and 13% with more than 15. They lack sufficient access to food, water, sanitary facilities, and healthcare.

There are roughly 204,749 convicts in Mexico. As a result, it ranks seventh overall out of all the other nations on the list. This number has dramatically increased as a result of an increase in the typical number of prisoners per 100,000 residents.

In some jails in Mexico, the number of detainees must exceed the capacity by more than 40%, which is quite concerning for both the government and the rest of the world. Mass murders, criminal activity, lax security, and other problems need to be addressed in these jails.

10. Philippines

The Philippines is the tenth most imprisoned nation in the world, with an estimated 215,000 in its custody. Extreme overcrowding in prisons in the Philippines is just as severe as it is in the other aforementioned nations. In 2001, there were approximately 35,000 inmates competing for space in jails under the bureau's supervision.

A punishment that is unhealthy, degrading, and unfair is to herd people into small spaces. Overcrowding is bad for people's health and life. It increases tensions, undermines authority, and spreads diseases. Prisoners claim that because of the constant competition for oxygen and space, prison is like a living death.

One factor that has sparked a lot of discussion over the years is the awful conditions in these institutions. For instance, there have been reports of rape, beatings, poor sanitation, and other crimes. These can be controlled when the population is reduced.