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They have been held in solitary confinement for at least 20 years, each in his own 8-by-10-foot windowless cell at the Pelican Bay supermax prison, with about a thousand others - half of whom have been there for more than a decade. A 2011 United Nations report said the practice can amount to torture and called for a ban on terms longer than 15 days. In this country, there are an estimated 25,000 prisoners in long-term solitary in supermax prisons; in California, the average stay is nearly seven years. The inmates are isolated because prison officials have determined that they pose a threat to the safety of the guards and other prisoners, despite a growing body of evidence that such use of solitary does not reduce prison violence or promote safety.

"... it's not just the excessive and unwise spending that offends conservative values. Prisons, for example, are harmful to prisoners and their families. Reform is therefore also an issue of compassion. The current system often turns out prisoners who are more harmful to society than when they went in, so prison and re-entry reform are issues of public safety as well."

America incarcerates five times as many people per capita as Canada and 7 times as many as most European democracies. In the early 70s, there were about 200,000 people locked up in the U.S. In 2004 the prison population of 1.8 million represented a growth of over 800% in the past 30 years. Nearly 7 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole -- 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults.

6 views - 3 pro, 3 con

"America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures - some of which are shown in the accompanying chart - ...not only are we not No.1, we are among the worst of the worst. These include the worst income inequality in the developed world except for Hong Kong and Singapore; and the world's highest per capita prison population at 1 out of every 15 people (which is greater than Russia's).

Catholic theologian Tim Muldoon: when "social contract" theory fails as a source of social ethics, then - said Martin Luther King Jr. (in "Letter from a Birmingham prison") - the appeal must be to some kind of transcendant "natural law." (I would only add that new views of "natural law" evolve with history and social circumstances - the incompatibility of slavery wasn't clearly seen till the 19thC, of segregation till the 20th, of discrimination against homosexuals in all the rights & privileges of civil society until the 21st.)