1 in 100

Americans is in prison...

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

Does this mean that we're doing a really great job of catching the bad guys? Or that we're putting people who need rehabilitation or psychiatric assistance in prison? And what about the racial breakdown? I'd also be interested in seeing the social class breakdown as I have a little suspicion that most of these folks are from the lower economic strata.

Either way, said Susan Urahn, the center’s managing director, “we aren’t really getting the return in public safety from this level of incarceration.”
“We tend to be a country in which incarceration is an easy response to crime,” Ms. Urahn continued. “Being tough on crime is an easy position to take, particularly if you have the money. And we did have the money in the ’80s and ’90s.”

(Thanks NY Times!)