“And why do we have so many inmates? The drug war and government expansion with no end in sight.”
Well, you lose me there, I have a long history of advocating for drug laws. I see drug abusers as a societal menace, and have no problem with the pre-emptive incarceration of those “victimless” criminals.
Nevertheless, I am an advocate of prison reform, and would like to see an end to prison rape and other abuses. When there is a will there is a way.
You do realize that quality and quantity are inversely correlated, especially when many states are running out of money. Prisons are an easy target for cost-cutting ...
America also has the highest incarceration rate, followed by Russia and Rwanda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States#Comparison_with_other_countries