According to this New York Times article, more than 1 in every 100 Americans is incarcerated in either a state prison or local jail. This is the highest rate of incarceration in US history and the highest rate of incarceration in the western world. For black men between 20 and 34, the rate of imprisonment is 1 in 10. This is pretty incredible and is consuming an enormous amount of resources. Are we safer than Canada, England, Germany, etc., which have much lower incarceration rates? I am not so sure.