" No other democracy imprisons such a large number of its own people, "

maybe so....how 'bout we let 'em out and send 'em YOUR way? Or maybe you have better ideas what to do with lawbreakers.

That is a ***statistic***, not an explanation of anything.
The USA is a large democracy, with a large # of people who have committed crimes (drugs are a major problem these days...and a lot of the drugs come from OTHER countries...we could bomb Afghanistan & Columbia and we might have fewer drugs...[he said facetiously])