A new report from the Pew Center on the States finds that 1.6 million Americans were in prison last year and another 723,000 were in jail -- about one in every 100 adults -- the New York Times reported Feb. 29.

Breaking down the statistics further, Pew reported that one in 15 black male adults are behind bars, as are one in 36 Hispanic males, one in 100 black women, and one in 355 white women.

The U.S. prison population increased by 25,000 last year, the report said. "We aren't really getting the return in public safety from this level of incarceration," said Susan Urahn, the center's managing director.

However, Paul Cassell of the University of Utah said that the benefit of lower crime rates arising from imprisoning criminals should not be overlooked. "While we certainly want to be smart about who we put into prisons, it would be a mistake to think that we can release any significant number of prisoners without increasing crime rates," he said. "One out of every 100 adults is behind bars because one out of every 100 adults has committed a serious criminal offense."

Urhan said that lock-em-up strategies were appealing when governments had money to build new prisons, but now "prison costs are blowing a hole in state budgets."

"Getting tough on crime has gotten tough on taxpayers," added Pew's Adam Gelb. "They don't want to spend $23,000 on a prison cell for a minor violation any more than they want a bridge to nowhere."

One traditionally tough-on-crime state, Texas, has recently revamped its prison system after years of building new prisons, expanding addiction treatment programs and drug courts. "Our violent offenders, we lock them up for a very long time -- rapists, murderers, child molesters," said state Sen. John Whitmire, chair of the Texas Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. "The problem was that we weren't smart about nonviolent offenders. The legislature finally caught up with the public."

For example, Whitmire noted, "We have 5,500 DWI offenders in prison. They're in the general population. As serious as drinking and driving is, we should segregate them and give them treatment."