Look what we spend on our prisons, vs. our schools.

The U.S. Department of Education released a brief on Thursday that looked at how much states spend on jails versus what states spend on education.

From the report:

• In the last 30 years, state and local spending has increased three times faster for prisons than they have for schools.

• The United States is now home to less than 5 percent of the world’s population but nearly 25 percent of the world’s imprisoned people.

• Prison spending is still a fraction of overall pre-K through 12 education spending: States spend $71 billion on prisons and $534 billion on schools each year. But that combined state and local prison budget is now over an eighth the size of the school budget.

You can read more here or here.