An interesting article in the economist this week. One of the girls from that Russian band pussy riot who got locked for three years for protesting Putin's reelection is becoming a prison reform activists. Of course the US is first in People locked up with with around 700 people per 100,000, Russia is second with almost 500 per 100,000. Nadia from pussy riot says Russia's current , vile law enforcement system still grinds people up and spits them out to their grave. She says corrupt prison officials steal money ear marked for food. Putin is also big on locking up dissidents but she says the main reason most are locked up is drugs. Aids and TB kill many prisoners each year.

The war on drugs in the US is responsible for locking up many non violent drug offenders. America has the highest population of prisoners but a large amount are situated in community based treatment programs that allow them to work etc. I have worked in our prison system, of course I've only seen a few prisons in my state but they were decent as such a place can be and the prisoners I worked with, while saying prisons sucks, said they are treated well and the food is good.

I am always perturbed at the amount of prisoners locked up in our country. A positive thing I can say about Obama is he recently visited a federal prison and is committed to prison reform. He has already pardoned at least 46 people given ridiculously long prison sentences for non violent drug offences. He has said there will be a lot of pardons before he leaves office. I've signed petitions for several.

Some people deserve to be locked up. If you seriously hurt or kill anyone you need to be separated from the population. If you prove a danger to other humans for killing, unfortunately life sentences may be warranted. In my opinion the US prison system is fucked up. First, get rid of the death penalty, too many people on death row have been exonerated after DNA evidence. I could go on but I've written enough. I know many here are not US based, I know nothing about prisons in the UK or Australia and was curious about what's going on and how you feel about your prison systems.