10/91Number of hours Linda Judson of Cobb County, Georgia, spent in jail last May for failing to return a rented videotape: 2
5/94Amount by which a California public-school teacher’s average annual salary exceeds that of a state prison guard: $1,000
8/94Price paid at auction last year for Pete Rose’s good-behavior voucher from an Illinois minimum-security prison: $770
Chances that an American sentenced for crack-related offenses is white: 1 in 25
10/95Hours of Newt Gingrich lectures to be broadcast in Phoenix jails this year as part of the sheriff’s “get tough” campaign: 20
10/95Number of microwave ovens blown up at a New York State prison this year by inmates trying to light cigarettes: 15
10/95Hours per day that the L.A. Central Jail runs its dry-cleaning machines to prepare prisoners’ street clothes for storage: 24
12/95Ratio of the voltage of fences proposed for Alabama’s high-security prisons to that of an electric chair: 5:2
12/95Gross revenue earned by U.S. telephone companies last year from phone calls made by prisoners: $1,000,000,000
4/95Days in jail served by a Michigan man last year after being convicted of secretly videotaping people using his bathroom: 75
5/95Rank of Georgia among states with the largest percentage of residents in prison, on parole, or on probation: 2
6/95Number of the 272 U.S. prisoners executed since 1976 who were white men convicted of killing a black man: 1
9/95Chances that a black resident of South Dakota is in prison: 1 in 10
2/96Number of plastic liners used by Florida prisons last year to combat chafing caused by leg irons: 280
6/96Chances a Californian lives or works in a prison: 1 in 200
8/96Amount of cash inmates compete to grab from between a bull’s horns each year at the Oklahoma State Prison Rodeo: $100
10/97Number of Illinois death-row prisoners released since 1977 after their convictions were overturned: 9
11/97Years it took a prisoner injured at the 1975 Attica prison riots to win a judgment against New York State last June: 26
Number of other Attica prisoners’ cases pending: 1,280
5/97Average number of hours per week of public service performed last year by each Ohio prisoner who volunteered for it: 4.3
11/98Estimated number of American women arrested for child abuse since 1977 after using drugs or alcohol while pregnant: 200
11/98Years in prison to which New Jersey’s Amy Grossberg was sentenced last July for killing her newborn: 2.5
12/98Years in prison to which a former CIA agent was sentenced last fall for attempting to extort $1 million from the agency: 5
12/98Total number of Americans serving time in prison for lying to a grand jury: 115
4/98Portion of fines levied and underpayments cited by the IRS each year for which large corporations are responsible: 1/2
5/98Ratio of whales killed by Captain Ahab in pursuit of Moby Dick to people indicted by Kenneth Starr since 1994: 1:1
Ratio of the estimated cost of Starr’s investigation to projected ad sales for the last episode of Seinfeld: 1:1
Percentage of Americans who cannot name the allegation that Starr was initially appointed to investigate: 40
7/98Chance that an American woman considers herself a victim of injustice: 1 in 5
Chance that an American man considers himself a victim of injustice: 1 in 4
7/98Number of witnesses called in the House campaign-finance investigation who have taken the Fifth: 53
7/98Amount the California prison system has spent since 1993 to prevent birds from being electrocuted by its fences: $3,400,000
7/98Number of days last March that a Georgia teen was suspended after wearing a Pepsi shirt on his school’s “Coke Day”: 1
11/99Average number of arrests made last year in New York City for every crime reported there: 1.1
4/99Settlement paid 3 female federal inmates last year after guards sold them as sex slaves to male prisoners: $500,000
5/99Days the President should spend in jail “simply for hitting on a dog like” Paula Jones, according to O.J. Simpson: 30
9/99Maximum amount of time that a suspect in Florida can be held in jail without being assigned a lawyer, in hours: 24
9/99Maximum amount of time that a recent Texas bill proposed holding suspects before assigning a lawyer, in days: 20
9/99Number of death sentences upheld by Texas courts since 1990 for men whose lawyers slept during their trials: 3
12/00Number of Falun Gong members arrested in China who have died in, en route to, or shortly after their release from prison: 53
2/00Maximum number of years to which a Burmese citizen may be sentenced for owning an unregistered computer: 15
2/00Estimated profit earned by New York State last year on collect calls made by prisoners: $21,000,000
3/00Percentage of the WTO protesters arrested in Seattle last year whose charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence: 92
4/00Number of flowers that prison inmates plant each spring at the Illinois State Fairgrounds: 110,000
9/00Percentage of death-penalty trials since 1976 that appeals courts have found to include “serious, reversible error”: 68
1/01Number of studies showing that the death penalty is a deterrent, according to Attorney General Janet Reno: 0
1/01Years that Mexico spent fighting a Texas death sentence given one of its citizens before his execution last fall: 9
10/01Number of people arrested at last year’s Republican National Convention: 390
11/01Prison sentence, in years, received in June by an Oregon activist for setting fire to a car dealership: 23
3/01Minimum number of mentally retarded Americans who have been executed by the justice system since 1976: 35
5/01Estimated number of “crush films” involving live rodents and high-heeled women seized from a New York man in 1999: 70
8/01Ratio of the starting salary of an Oklahoma prison guard to the federal poverty level for a family of four: 10:11
9/01Ratio of the number of pupils per teacher in Michigan’s schools to the number of inmates per guard in its prisons: 18:5
1/02Last day on which a total tally of those detained in U.S. terrorism investigations was released to the public: 11/2
10/02Months since his release from prison that nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee has been looking for work: 24
10/02Number of bookies arrested in India in March on charges they took bets on Hindu-Muslim riots: 101
11/02Ratio of the number of pardons George W. Bush has issued turkeys to those he has issued human beings: 2:1
2/02Date of an Economist correction apologizing for ever implying that Bush|President Bush] was elected: 11/17/01
3/02Number of Swedish teenagers convicted of lese majesty in December for hitting the king with a cream cake: 4
Total number of Swedish officials hit by cream cakes last year: 3
4/02Number of Israeli military personnel jailed since September 2000 for refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories: 34
Minimum number of Israeli high school students who wrote Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last fall to refuse in advance: 62
4/02Amount the Justice Department spent in November installing curtains to cover two seminude statues of Justice: $8,650
4/02Days that the Taliban left bodies hanging after an execution, according to a judge in the new government: 4
Estimated number of minutes to which he says the country’s new administration will reduce such hanging time: 15
4/02Number of George H.W. Bush’s five adult grandchildren who have been arrested: 3
Number who avoided charges after being forgiven by a girlfriend for breaking into her house: 1
6/02Number of the seven U.S. vetoes cast in the U.N. Security Council since 1990 that have blocked censures of Israel: 6
7/02Number of times Attorney General John Ashcroft has overruled a local prosecutor’s decision not to seek the death penalty: 12
Average number of times former attorney general Janet Reno did this in as many months: 7
7/02Number of Florida State University students arrested in March for protesting while not in a designated “free-speech area”: 12
8/02Number of months in jail to which one can be sentenced for discussing politics without a permit in Zimbabwe: 6
8/02Years that a Nigerian woman appealing a sentence of death by stoning in March will be allowed to live to wean her baby: 1.5
8/02Percentage of Afghans who will “soon” get AIDS if adulterous women are not jailed, according to a government deputy: 50
10/04Total “ death gratuities ” the U.S. government has paid since then to survivors of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq: $11,436,000
10/04Total amount Ohio’s crime-victims compensation fund has paid the survivors of one U.S. soldier killed in Iraq: $5,656.77
10/04Ratio of the minimum number of beheadings by the Saudi government last year to those by Saudi terrorists so far this year: 50:1
11/04Minimum number of Californians serving a life sentence for cheating on a driving exam: 1
11/04Percentage change from 2000 to 2003 in the number of immigration appeals sent to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court: +355
2/04Number of a Texas toddler’s burned fingers amputated in 1992 after she was left in a car with her mother’s lit cigarette: 9.5
Settlement Philip Morris paid the girl’s family last May: $2,000,000
2/04Percentage of lawsuits decided last year under the Americans with Disabilities Act that were won by employers: 94.5
3/04Months after the Justice Department began investigating Enron in 2001 that an Enron executive was jailed: 21
3/04Maximum prison sentence in months for causing the death of a U.S. worker by willfully violating federal safety regulations: 6
4/04Factor by which Florida’s white defendants are more likely than blacks to get a plea bargain blocking felony conviction: 1.5
5/04Number of years a North Carolina man has been in prison for stealing a television: 33
9/04Percentage recidivism rate of youth released from prison who can read at the 11th and 2nd grade level, respectively: 36, 62
9/04Months before anyone filed an amicus brief supporting a 2002 habeas corpus suit on behalf of the Guantánamo detainees: 10
Number of amicus briefs filed once the case was accepted by the Supreme Court last fall: 17
11/05Price, from an online vendor, of a “Free Judith Miller ” thong: $9.99
2/05Estimated change since 1999 in the number of civil-rights complaints reported to the Justice Department: 0
Percentage change since then in the number of civil-rights criminal charges brought by the department: -47
5/05Number of female U.S. soldiers disciplined this year for mud-wrestling at an Iraqi prison camp: 2
3/06Portion of New York Senate districts that would not meet the minimum population level without their inmates: 1/9
6/06Chances that a U.S. federal judge has requested a government-supplied home security system since May 2005: 3 in 4
8/06Chance that a member of an all-white jury decides a black defendant’s guilt before deliberating, in a recent study: 1 in 2
9/06Number of convictions that have been handed down so far under India’s 1996 law to ban sex-determination tests: 1