U.S. Prison System Needs Complete Overhaul

Bravo to Sen. Jim Webb for holding hearings on the lamentable condition of the prison system in the United States, where we incarcerate more of our own people than any other nation on Earth by a wide margin. Webb is right to identify this as a problem and seek the comprehensive reform that is needed to rectify this untenable situation. This is a case of a public policy experiment gone very, very wrong. Our prison system is the shame of the entire world, including totalitarian regimes that we traditionally excoriate. On the surface we need to immediately address unfair and racially discriminatory sentencing, including the ruthless practice of imprisonment for non-violent drug-related offenses.