Original Article Incarceration rate rising since 2000 Group questions drug policies Siobhan Mcdonough Associated Press Apr. 25, 2005 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - Many of the growing numbers of those incarcerated in the nation's prison's and jail are not serious or violent offenders but are low-level drug offenders, according to Malcolm Young, executive director of the Sentencing Project. Young said one way to help lower the number is to introduce drug treatment programs that offer effective ways of changing behavior and to provide appropriate assistance for the mentally ill. According to the Justice Policy Institute, which advocates a more lenient system of punishment, the United States has a higher rate of incarceration than any other country, followed by Britain, China, France, Japan and Nigeria. There were 726 inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents by June 30, 2004, compared with 716 a year earlier, according to the report by the Justice Department. In 2004, one in every 138 U.S. residents was in prison or jail; the previous year it was one in every 140. In 2004, 61 percent of prison and jail inmates were of racial or ethnic minorities, the government said. An estimated 12.6 percent of all black men in their late 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.7 percent of white men in that age group, the report said. Other findings include: State prisons held about 2,500 youths under 18 in 2004. That compares with a peak, in 1995, of about 5,300. Local jails held about 7,000 youths, down from 7,800 in 1995. In the year ending last June 30, 13 states reported an increase of at least 5 percent in the federal system.