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The suggestions at the end of the article to remedy this are pretty lame. The author misses his own point IMHO. Do away with the whole war on drugs and legalize
by arbuge 14y ago
The suggestions at the end of the article to remedy this are pretty lame. The author misses his own point IMHO. Do away with the whole war on drugs and legalize them, and you'll have far fewer cases crowding courtrooms. That will in turn pave the way for reform of the plea bargaining process, which becomes feasible once the case pressure is off.
- SideburnsOfDoom 14y agoIn fairness though, The Economist has argued against the WoD in other articles at length over the years. They may be assuming that the reader knows this, and wish to concentrate on this one topical point of the WoD's corrosive effects.
- InvisibleCities 14y agoBut how will we keep our private prisons profitable?
- erichocean 14y agoNot to mention pay for those inflated prison guard pensions?
- Spooky23 14y agoThat's a great point -- in reality, alot of the systematic injustices baked into the system are measures taken to deal with the sea of drug cases that clog the courts.
- arbuge 14y agoIt's at least part of the reason. There are other factors of course - one that leaps out at me is the political ambitions that many prosecutors have. In a country where being seen as tough on crime is usually a ticket to higher office, that's a problem.