For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in a hundred American adults or 1.6 million people, are incarcerated , the Pew Center reports. Both in absolute terms and on a per capita basis, the U.S imprisons more people than any other nation.
The New York Times
Were Epicurus alive today he would certainly speculate on the fact that few Americans (except a raggedy few without flag pins in their lapels) seem to understand that this statistic is appalling.
Like the war on terror, the war on drugs, which appears to account for a huge proportion of the incarcerated, cannot be won using the existing methods. You have to legalize marijuana at very least, and release the users, mostly black, who are learning to be serious criminals in jail. I once tried marijuana, was very sick and never tried again, so I personally have no ax to grind. But the cost to society of this policy doesn’t bear thinking about; the lack of common sense is astounding.
Why do our lords and masters succeed in getting most things wrong?