>What is overwhelmingly driving US's incarceration rate is War on Drugs. Yeah, that's only a part of it. While a significant problem, drug related crimes make

>What is overwhelmingly driving US's incarceration rate is War on Drugs. Yeah, that's only a part of it. While a significant problem, drug related crimes make up only 20% of the total incarcerated number. (That 1/5 is still on its own more than the incarcerated per capita rates for all crimes in comparable countries like Canada and the UK, so it's definitely a big deal.) The numbers for non-violent drug crimes are higher as an overall percentage in the Federal system than they are at the State level. Again, 400,000 is just property crimes. About 1 in 3 people currently held in jail for property crimes are there for larceny/theft or stolen property. I don't agree about the 'fertile ground' for crime you're talking about in part because I have never seen any evidence for it. It's in movies, but I haven't really seen it in real life, and I've been looking at the data for a little while now. I am completely willing to be schooled on that if you've got some evidence though.