The Presidency and America's Addiciton to Prisons and Drugs

"We may have the world’s highest rate of incarceration — with 5 percent of global population, 25 percent of prisoners worldwide. We may be throwing hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders, many barely of age, behind bars — one reason a stunning one out of every 100 Americans is now imprisoned. We may have created a huge 'prison-industrial complex' of prison builders, contractors and swollen criminal justice bureaucracies."

"A serious set of problems, a shadow over our national future? No doubt. But do our politicians talk much about alternatives? No way — they typically find it too risky to be attacked as 'soft on crime.'"

"But let’s imagine — What if major party nominees Barack Obama or John McCain were pressed to state their positions on drugs and incarceration?"