U.S., Wisconsin fast becoming a nation of prisoners

"Don't say that you will never wear the beggar's bag, nor go to prison." –Russian proverb

Adult males have about a 1 in 200 chance of going to prison, but this perverse lottery has climbed substantially in the last several decades. According to Counting Prisoners in Wisconsin, "The United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The general level of incarceration in this country hovered around 100 per 100,000 persons for 50 years until the 1980s and ‘90s, when it shot up to nearly 500 per by the turn of the century."

The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that, of those who get arrested, "Almost nine out of every 10 jail inmates were adult males. However, the number of adult females in jail increased faster than males."