The table gives the prison population and total population for a sample of states in 2014–15. (Source: The 2017 World Almanac and Book of Facts)

Find the number of people in prison per thousand residents in each state and rank each state from the highest rate (rank 1) to the lowest rank (rank 6). Compare these rankings of rates with the ranks of total numbers of people in prison. Of the states in this table, which state has the highest prison population? Which state has the highest rate of imprisonment? Explain why these two answers are different.

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State Prison Population Total Population California 136,088 39,144,818 New York 52,518 19,795,791 Illinois 48,278 12,859,995 Louisiana 38,030 4,670,724 Mississippi 18,793 2,992,333