Has the United States become a police state? Has this status crept up
on us by accretion as overzealous politicians have played on fears of
crime to get votes?

Tonight 1.8 million Americans will sleep in a federal, state or local
prison or jail. Consider also that about 4.1 million Americans are on
parole or probation. A total of 5.9 million adult Americans are under
policesupervision. That is 2.2 percent of the total population or
about 3 percent of the adult population.

Not only is the dollar cost of imprisonment and supervision gigantic,
but such a police state taxes democracy and civil liberties.

Should we not revisit the entire legal structure of criminal laws,
most of which have been enacted in the past 30 years? Should we not
consider returning many civil violations that became criminal laws
back to civil infractions? Should we not consider a drastic reform of
America's drug laws, which are proven failures, create more crimes and
criminals and do not stop the use of, or the trafficking in, illegal
drugs?

If we take no steps now to explore criminal-justice reform, what is
the critical mass to cause us to face the fact that in any small crowd
of people there are criminals or formercriminals? Is it 5 percent, 10
percent, 20 percent?

Can we have a society based on personal freedom when so many citizens
have none?

Richard N. Friedman,
Miami