LAND OF THE FREE?

St. Anicet, Que. -- Here's a disgrace. According to CNN/Time, the U.S.
prison population will exceed two million. According to the Web site, this
represents about 25 per cent of all the people in the world who are
incarcerated, yet the United States represents only about 4 per cent of the
world's population.

A very large percentage of these prisoners are being held under new
mandatory sentences for minor drug offences such as simple possession for
personal use. Many of these people are not violent offenders, but rather
productive people who got caught with a personal stash too often. Is that a
war on drugs?

For all the criticism of Chinese labour camps and Russian gulags, the United
States has jailed more people, per capita, by far. Prisons are a huge growth
industry in the U.S. Canada has even sent some of its prisoners there. How
can such a massive movement take place without raising a few flags?

Are U.S. citizens so determined to feel safe in their homes and on their
streets that they are ready to forgo the freedoms their forefathers fought
to obtain? Land of the free, really?