Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Land of the Free?

The Land of the Free incarcerates more citizens per capita than any other country on Earth, almost half of them for nonviolent offenses. And it's not because of a rise in crime rates—in fact, those have been falling for nearly a decade. Rather, tough sentencing and anti-drug laws have put a growing number of marginal offenders behind bars.

From Wired Nils Christie: Empty the Prisons part of their The Smart List: 12 Shocking Ideas That Could Change the World. Thing that struck me was that Chuck Colson and Prison Fellowship have been talking about this for years:
2.3 million men and women now pack our prisons and jails — a 500-percent increase since Prison Fellowship began in 1976.

From the sidebar on Why Minister to Prisoners.

- Peace

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