US imprisons people we're 'just made at,' author argues

WARREN

The United States prison population has increased 500 percent since the early 1980s, when Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign began.

Throughout the decade, drug laws became more punitive, especially after the emergence of crack cocaine.

Today, the U.S. has the second-highest incarceration rate in the world, but it also has the highest drug-offender incarceration rate in the world, according to John Carl, one of two authors of a recent book, “A Country Called Prison.”

The U.S. sends people to prison at a rate of 707 people per 100,000 population, second behind the country of Seychelles. France incarcerates at a rate of 149 per 100,000 and Great Britain at a rate of 102 per 100,000, Carl said.

In a speech about the book in September, Carl framed his argument for reducing the American prison population by saying there are those who belong in prison because we fear them, such as child molesters or murderers. But non-violent offenders, like most drug offenders, are people we are just “mad at.”

Drug offenders should be treated more like a person with an illness than like a criminal, Carl and his co-author argue in the book.

Read more about the matter in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.