American Notes

What nation locks up the highest percentage of its population? The Soviet Union? South Africa? Guess again: that dubious distinction belongs to the U.S. A report issued last week by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based public-interest group that advocates reform of sentencing practices, puts the , rate of incarceration at 426 per 100,000 people in the U.S., 333 in South Africa and 268 in the Soviet Union. It finds that America imprisons black males at a rate four times that of South Africa.

The report notes that the American prison population has doubled in the past decade -- even though the overall crime rate has declined 3.5%. It cites mandatory sentencing laws in 46 states and tougher federal drug laws as the main reasons. Despite $16 billion a year spent on prisoners, claims Marc Mauer, the project's assistant director, "the same policies that have helped make us a world leader in incarceration have failed to make us a safer nation."