USA has the highest incarceration rate. Why?

[chocoloco]

thranx said:

HappySqurriel said:
You have an education system that is set up to protect incompetent teachers an benefit unions at the expense of students ... If you don't have the basic literacy skills and/or numeracy skills to perform well in our economy the likelyhood that you will end up in jail (due to criminal activity) is drastically increased.

This. And the massive failure that is the war on drugs.

Happy squrriel is wrong unless your counting the massive difference in education levels in America. The poor communities which often consist of minorities do not receive equivalent levels of education. Marcus and thranx both have it right in that many of the prisoners are locked up for minor drug offenses and the majority of them are minorities. Once felony is committed most job opportunities are lost to these people leading them to continue the patterns that got them into jail in the first place. If society worked towards educating and forgiving the mistakes of Americans than perhaps they could more easily move on to productive lives.

Also every answer I have seen given by non-Americans is very comical. I laugh at your perceived understanding of American problems. Especially Rol's idea of blaming guns. The problems caused  by guns varies greatly by state so  causation for a problem varies greatly by state. Yet, you can never know if Rol is serious or just trying to stir up trouble.