A cause for celebration.

[kandrathe]

This isn't a problem with the sentencing then, is it? It's a problem with enforcing these sentences. The problem isn't the current laws and sentences. It's the state of the prisons. It's easy and pleasing to the public to pass all kinds of laws putting the bad guys in jail for longer terms, but please tell me someone actually thinks about how these prisons are going to cope with this. Extending the death penalty to crimes other than murder seems like the easy (cheaper) way out, and is morally repugnant to me.

The complication in the US, as I've pointed out before are the politically motivated "get tough on drugs" laws that are populist and used by politicians to dupe voters into thinking they're doing something in DC. The result is that after 20 years, we've dedicated 30-40% of our prison space for drug related crimes in extreme "mandatory minimum" sentences. Consequently, repeat drug offenders can do more time than rapists, murderers, or child molesters. That is one area of brokeness in our system that needs to be addressed.