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I'm not familiar with the US parole system, so maybe I am reading this wrong, but it sounds like he was given a 10 year term then let out after just 6 months?!?! How can that happen? Even in the liberal UK we would expect him to serve 1/2 the sentence.

Easy. A "liberal" federal judge took over the penal system in Texas and imposed all sorts of requirements for quality of life of inmates. As a result, quite a number of prisoners had to be released early to reduce "overcrowding" in Texas prisons. Since that time Texas has built lots of new prison space mostly in rural counties across the state. Also, the federal courts are no longer controlling Texas prisons. We now have plenty of prison space to hold prisoners so they don't have to be released early.

One side benefit of these prisons for the rural communities where they are located is that they increase their population which increases their representaion in the legislature and congress, but the prisoners who can't vote don't distort the politics of the commnunities. There are some leftist activists who are upset that the prisoners who are mostly from inner city urban areas are actually helping to increase the number of conservative rural legislators while decreasing the number of "liberal" (leftist) legislators from urban areas.

Hmm...thanks for the explanation. The US legal system is obviously a lot more complex than ours, which I admire, BTW, because it gives you several loci of power which allows it to be responsive to citizen's demands (as you say it is doing in Texas).

Know any good web sites that give an overview of the US legal system? I know you have state courts and judges, "Circuit Courts", a Supreme Court at federal level (and possibly State Supreme Courts too?) but I have no idea how they all relate.