Nancy, you make a very important connection to how the U.S. is dismantling its precedent for equal protection under the law. The prison at Guantanamo Bay is a particularly shameful reality, where a person can be incarcerated without charges and without access to lawyers for an undetermined amount of time. I don't think its a coincidence that the government opened this prison outside our country's borders; it simply couldn't bear the brunt of public scrutiny and for most of us citizen, out of sight out of mind rules the day.

RoseAnne, I'd be very interested to hear more about how Europe's prison system compares to the one in the U.S. You're absolutely right about the how race plays into this: young men of color, particularly Black and Latino men, are far more likely than any other demographic to go to prison, and to receive longer sentences. It's frightening to see how this decimates neighborhoods.