Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform

Washington Post.com:

"In speeches and in a book that devotes a chapter to prison issues, (Senator James) Webb describes a U.S. prison system that is deeply flawed in how it targets, punishes and releases those identified as criminals.

With 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States has imprisoned a higher percentage of its population than any other nation, according to the Pew Center on the States and other groups. Although the United States has only 5 percent of the world's population, it has 25 percent of its prison population, Webb says.

A disproportionate number of those who are incarcerated are black, Webb notes. African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, but they comprise more than half of all prison inmates, compared with one-third two decades ago. Today, Webb says, a black man without a high school diploma has a 60 percent chance of going to prison." (Emphasis Mine.)

Oh, yeah, the system's fair. Of course it is. Uh-huh. Sure. No question. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now how about you sell Me some more of that swamp land in Lower Bumhole?