ARTICLE: "Inmate Count In U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations': Tough Laws and Long Terms Create Gap," by Adam Liptak, New York Times, 23 April 2008, p. A1.

We are five percent of global population but house almost one-quarter of prisoners, but that fits our share of garbage, pollution, energy use, GDP production, etc., so hardly a shocker.

Bigger problem is that we produce more ex-cons that anybody on planet, and that's bad for business. As so many are minor drug offenders, this is wasteful and pointless. Better to medicalize the solution than stalk functional illiterates in droves and stick them in prison for several years.

China has 4X our population but only 1.6 million in prison compared to our 2.3 million.

We are a "rogue state" says one criminologist.

Some states get it right, though. Minnesota looks like Sweden, whereas Texas is just this side of Russia.

Over 50 percent of our fed prisoners are there for drugs! That's just nutty. For $75k a year, I can spend that money on the guy better and still have plenty left over.