One Nation Behind Bars

Prague, CZ
1 Aug. 2013
Thomas Secrest

One Nation Behind Bars

It wasn't that long ago that I wrote a piece on arrest rates in America. I wasn't completely surprised that America topped the list, although it was a little disturbing. I looked into it a little further and found that nearly 1 in 3 people are arrested before turning 23. These number make you stop and think -- what kind of society is America, if so many people are arrested each year?

I just didn't want to believe that America was some kind of hell-hole full of degenerate people who do nothing by seek out and break laws, as though it were some kind of national past-time. Part of me assumed that America's famously fair criminal justice system would prevail over, what seemed like mindless, indiscriminate arrests.

So I dug around and found a list of incarceration rates for countries of the world. I had visions of countries like Russia, China, South Africa, Columbia and Mexico being the top five, even it I didn't know the order. However, once again, I was a little surprised. Once again, America topped the list.

The countries in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th positions were a little strange and I can only assume they are there because of some statistical anomaly. In 5th position was Cuba, Russia was 8th, South Africa was 37th, Columbia was 52nd, Mexico was 67th, the Czech Republic was 94th and China was number 124!

Since almost everyone is aware that South Africa and Mexico have a few problems in this area, let me use them as a comparison. America has 2.5 times more prisoners than South Africa and 3.5 times more than Mexico.

This leads me to conclude that America is not a nation of degenerate law breakers, but instead a nation of degenerate law makers and a broken criminal justice system that profits from having people constantly entering and existing America's, extensive, prison system.

The American justice system can make ANYTHING illegal. Right or wrong is not an issue. Once something is illegal, the legislative system determines that penalty and punishment and the criminal justice system finds you guilty. Claiming the law is unconstitutional is a laugh. Even if you could pursue that pathway, you will still spend part of your life in prison as your case slowly works its way through the system.

I put to you these questions:

How much is your freedom worth?
How many years are you willing to spend in prison, for the right to be an American?

If you're not ready to start cutting off heads, then I suggest you tread likely, for you walk among snakes.