WASHINGTON, April 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The US prison population, the largest in the world, has risen further, with one in 138 residents of the country now in jail, new government statistics released Monday showed.

    There were more than 2.1 million US citizens in jail by last June 30, the Bureau of Justice Statistics said. The prison population has grown by about 900 inmates each week between mid-2003 and mid-2004, according to the figures.

    It means the incarceration rate reached a record of 726 people for every 100,000 residents. The Justice Policy Institute, which advocates a more lenient system of punishment, says it is the highest rate in the world, more than five times that in Britain, and 12 times that in Japan.

    Paige Harrison, the report's co-author, said the increase can be attributed largely to get-tough policies enacted in the 1980s and 1990s. Most of these policies remain in place,

    The government says the policy of putting criminals behind barsis working. Recent figures have shown that violent crime went down two percent in the country in the first six months of last year.

    The figures showed that 12.6 percent of black males in their late 20s are in prison, compared to 3.6 percent of Hispanics and about 1.7 percent of whites. Enditem