> As of October 2013, the United States had the highest prison population rate in the world, housing 716 people for every 100,000 people in the national populat

> As of October 2013, the United States had the highest prison population rate in the world, housing 716 people for every 100,000 people in the national population. 14 At the same time, Norway housed only seventy-two people in prison for every 100,000 people in the national population, a rate almost one tenth of the United States. [...] > A comparative look at recidivism in the two countries reveals no better numbers for the United States. In the United States, an average of nine million prisoners are released back into the community each year. 48 Unfortunately, “about two-thirds (67.8%) of released prisoners were arrested for a new crime within 3 years, and three-quarters (76.6%) were arrested within 5 years.” 49 Over a five-year study of state prisoners released in thirty states, almost 1.2 million arrests occurred, and 16.1% of these arrests were attributable to released prisoners. 50 Norway, on the other hand, has the lowest reoffending rate of all the Nordic countries; about one-fifth of ex-prisoners reoffend within two years of release, contrasted with a rate of 24–31% for other Nordic countries. 51 Comparing the United States’ 67.8% to Norway’s approximately twenty percent paints a bleak picture for the United States.