To Know the Character of a Nation, Study its Prisons

  If you would know the character of a nation, study its prisons. The moral values it has will be reflected by what it tosses people in jail for.
  And -- perhaps more importantly -- what it doesn't toss them in prison for. A nation that doesn't punish domestic assault -- that allows a man to beat his wife -- would not be good. A nation that allows people to kill home intruders who stumble drunken into those homes would not be good.
  Someone would suggest throwing someone in jail for marijuana  doesn't reflect well. I would disagree, but have heard of sentences much too stiff, and wonder if that reflects how unforgiving and spiteful we can be.
   Judgmental. Hateful.
   If the nation sends a disproportionate number of blacks to the jail cells, that does, indeed, reflect some racism. If is it true we do, yes, that does not at all reflect well on us.