The caption at the top of the article compares this 6M figure to the number in Stalin's gulag system - that's shocking. You didn't get to go home on probation after being sentenced to the gulag.

It doesn't render the article useless, but it does mean that it no longer commands authority.

Stalin would probably say something similar about the Nazi camps. You weren't given a meal a day and a shirt on your back while you lived your days in Siberia under the German system. Plus, most of the people in the Gulags had subversive political ideas that got them there rather than simply their grandparent's last name.

Your parent is objecting to what would appear to be intentional manipulation & misrepresentation of numbers, not accidental overlooking.

Most people reading the article will assume the 6M people are in a prison. Odds are this misconception is intended by the author.

Be careful with "most people" comments. I read the article and did not at any point assume the figure meant # of persons in a prison.

Correctional supervision stood out as not meaning incarceration.

Apologies, I misinterpreted - so the 4M are a subset of the 6M supposedly in prison. This is a fair criticism.