There are many people in US prisons who wouldn’t be in jail if they did the same thing in Germany (e.g. no three strikes law or mandatory sentencing in Germany).
The prison population might still be higher without those laws because of a difference in crime rate – but not quite as high.
>>ugh+(OP)
And if America had Germany's laws, there would be much higher crime rates. America did have soft crime laws before the 1990s, and it did have much higher crime rates. That's why the US got tough on crime and Germany didn't.