I agree it's ridiculous, the number of people the US has imprisoned. Imprisoning people for crimes against themselves is wholly pathetic. We as a country don't have the resources (read: tax dollars) to house, feed, and clothe these people who have done nothing to anyone but themselves. I agree the judicial system in the US is corrupt. The war on drugs has been a vast black hole for resources, an abysmal failure all around. However, I do also agree with Tim, that comparing jailing to execution is, in my opinion, quite a far stretch. We do have too many people in jail in this country, but we're generally civil about it. Executing large numbers of people for their political, social, or religious beliefs is sickening. On 12/8/04 5:58 PM, "Tim C" <timc_orb@charter.net> wrote:
even if you include the millions that perished in the prison camps. We have five times more of our population in prison than Stalinist USSR (slightly less than five times if you include those that died in the purges), seven times (that's close though I'm not positive I'm right)than South Africa at the height of Apartheid, and we have almost ten times more of our people in prison than Europe does. That's just frightening, don't you think?
However (continuing my comments from above), it's pretty god-damn asinine to equate putting a lot of people in jail for non-crimes with rounding up vast numbers of the population and summarily KILLING THEM. Jesus.