Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment

By Prema Polit, AlterNet. Posted April 14, 2007.

In the U.S., over 2.13 million people are incarcerated. Sasha Abramsky's new book, American Furies, explores the bloated prison system and its tremendous financial and moral cost to our society.

The prison system in the U.S. stands alone in the modern Western world as a model of mass incarceration. The "tough on crime" stance taken by elected officials from across the political spectrum has not halted the resurgence of crime in the last few years, nor has it helped prevent ex-inmates from once again ending up behind bars.

How did the U.S. devolve into a nation that incarcerates over 2.13 million people, when just a quarter century ago the number was 475,000? What happens when the criminal justice system deals out vengeance instead of justice?