"The United States jails 702 people per 100,000 (and a vast majority of those prisoners are men). This is 12 percent higher than Russia, and it is more than five times the incarceration rate of England and Wales, Spain, Canada, Australia, or Italy. “We are arresting far too many young men. … And this is an area where we can save money,” said Irwin Garfinkel, co-director of Columbia University’s Population Research Center, at a discussion at the Brookings Institution on Monday. Reducing the amount that the country spends on imprisoning over 2 million people could save money for governments already strapped for cash and cutting jobs—cuts that have affected women and men alike during the economic recovery."
