The mainstream media finally notices

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The Green Party has been jumping up and down about this for some time, but at long last, the New York Times has noticed that, far from being the "land of the free," we are the land of the imprisoned:

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Adam Liptak is doing an invaluable public service by exposing our system's workings to the public. Let's hope he goes on to examine the for-profit prison.