Well, it did say since the "let's get tough on crime" push started ballooning our jail population....

"...Violent crime has fallen by more than 51 percent since 1991, and property crime has decreased by more than 43 percent...."

I'd say that's pretty good news.  Maybe the bigger problem is that we actually have a large percentage of irresponsible, disrespectful people in our population, and not that we have full jails.  Not sure where you've traveled, but aside from the 3rd world holes on this planet, we look pretty bad when compared to many other "civilized" societies.