WE'RE #1

Well the United States has set another record that we shouldn't be proud of. According to a study released by the non-partisan Pew Center, the land of the free leads the world in, not only the percentage of its citizens who are incarcerated, but also the sheer number of prisoners.

Currently 1 in 100 Americans are behind bars. That percentage is higher than any other country in the world. In raw numbers, that's 2.3 MILLION people. And that means more Americans are incarcerated than even the far more populous (and communist) China.

And over half of the people in jail are there for non-violent crimes.

Logically, this can lead to only one of two conclusions. Either Americans or a particularly unlawful bunch of people, or American jurisprudence is particularly harsh. I think the later is more likely.

When will Americans wake up and realize that our justice system is cruel and mean-spirited? And it doesn't prevent crime? If so many of our citizens are in jail, one would think we would have a lower crime rate. Not so. More enlightened western industrialized nations (meaning all of them), which have more benign justice systems, also have much lower crime rates than America. Imagine that.

If you can't worry about your fellow citizens, then worry about yourself. Every one of us, on occasion, will do something that, under our strict sentencing guidelines, could get us thrown in jail. Get angry with someone and punch them, and you're looking at 10 years in prison on an felony assault charge.

And if you don't worry about yourself, worry about your children. Because, God knows, kids do stupid things. Get caught with a joint, and there goes your college education. Shoot another kid in the ass with a bb gun, and you have a felony assault rapsheet. Accidentally run a red light and kill someone, and you're in prison for 10-20 years. Hell, Laura Bush did that when she was 17. If the legal system had been as harsh then as it is now, her life would have been completely different.