The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, with approximately 0.74 percent of the population 2,266,800 people in prison as of the end of 2010, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Approximately 7.1 million Americans were under correctional supervision as of year-end 2010. In 2010, nearly 10.2 million Americans were arrested, according to the FBI.
The use of criminal background checks in employment decisions can thus have far-reaching consequences for a significant portion of the population, and particularly for racial and ethnic minorities, whose rates of arrest and incarceration are disproportionately high.
