[ruiner]

I agree, I stopped taking the article seriously at " prison-industrial complex" . . .

[IonImplantGuru]

I agree, I stopped taking the article seriously at " prison-industrial complex" . . .

With only a bit of sarcasm, I could say that that's when I started taking the article VERY seriously. People outside penal and courts system are mostly unaware of how big a business it really is!

I had, and have, a number of relatives and friends in the corrections 'industry'. With the draconian drug laws that exist in most states and increasingly harsh penalties for other crimes (e.g., '3 strikes' style laws) the corrections bureaucracy is HUGE! In California the PAC representing prison guards is second in lobbying power only to the state teachers association. And none of them would like to lose their job because drug use (and therefore drug arrests and incarcerations) would plummet.

[t_skoz]

Look around you. Government workers at all levels, local, state and federal, as well as their contractor cronies and those in the medical community, are reaping unimaginable profits from building prisons and incarcerating drug criminals.

If we locked people away for crimes that involve force or fraud initiated against people or their property, and offered medical treatment to addicted people who have not committed these crimes, we would be saving billions of dollars.

While I do agree that a lot of the people who use the phrase "prison-industrial complex" are often off their rockers, there are inordinate amounts of evidence that show that we are wasting tons of money, enlarging the size and scope of government at all levels, and meanwhile not treating addicts.