RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Brazil, the biggest country in Latin America, has the third highest detention rate in the world, jailing 342 people out of 100,000, said the country's Ministry of Justice on Friday.
The United States tops this ranking with 698 people detained per 100,000 people, followed by Russia with 445 per 100,000. However, Brazil is the only country to see the rate rise continuously since 1995.
According to a study released by the ministry, Brazil's prison population doubled from 361,400 detainees in 2005 to 726,712 in June 2016.
Cell space has not been kept up, providing only 368,000 places, with an average of two prisoners per space, said the ministry's report.
"There has been a small increase in prison units since 2014, but it is not sufficient to hold the incarcerated population, which is increasing in Brazil," said Jefferson de Almeida, director of the National Prison Department.
The report estimates that 90 percent of prisoners in the country are in overly populated prisons. The occupancy rate stood at 197 percent in 2016, despite a recommendation by the government last year that the limit should be 137.5 percent.
Overcrowding is worst in the northern Amazonas state with an occupancy rate of 484.5 percent, which is nearly five prisoners for every space.
The report also said that around 60 percent of prisoners are illiterate and have not completed basic education.
