America behind bars?

I read an astonishing article the other day, saying that "... more than one in 100 American adults now is incarcerated, according to a study released yesterday by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project."

Wow, what are they doing over there? Could it be that Americans are more criminal than other countries population, or is the system just more likely to sentence people to prison, even for minor offenses? Well, I choose to believe the later.
The article goes on:

"... Texas' prison population -- 171,790 -- is the nation's highest, according to the study. The study concluded that much of the growth in prison populations has to do with "a wave of policy choices that are sending more lawbreakers to prison and, through popular 'three-strikes' measures and other sentencing enhancements, keeping them there longer."
"... Men are about 10 times more likely to be incarcerated, but the female population is growing at a faster rate. The study also found that age limits jail time. One in every 53 people in their 20s is in prison, but above age 55 that falls to one in 837. Even so, between 1992 and 2001, the number of state and federal inmates aged 50 and older rose from 41,586 to 113,358, a jump of 173 percent.

The racial disparity is stark: While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that same age group the figure is one in nine."

Yes, I'm amazed... This is crazy...

So happy I live in Canada, though, I haven't seen the figures here, yet...