Land Of The Free? US Has 25 Percent Of The World’s Prisoners
Our prisons are full, partially because of America’s tendency to criminalize acts that other countries view as civil violations.
Via Moyers & Company:
The United States has about five percent of the world’s population and houses around 25 percent of its prisoners. In large part, that’s the result of the “war on drugs” and long mandatory minimum sentences, but it also reflects America’s tendency to criminalize acts that other countries view as civil violations.
In 2010, The Economist highlighted a case in which four Americans were arrested for importing lobster tails in plastic bags rather than in cardboard boxes. That violated a Honduran law which that country no longer enforces, but because it’s still on the books there its enforced ...