The average sentence in America is four times that of most developed countries. For the exact same offence. Have to keep the private prison system full and profitable I suppose.

A body on the street is just not worth the big dollars to the corporations either. What is troubling. There is so much evidence that Americans can land up imprisoned. On the lying words of a police officer is probably far too common.

Judges have been caught filling prisons in a kickback scheme. Where the people given time where obviously innocent.

The lying officer and even the ones that kill unarmed people. Usually seem to escape any punishment as well. At the same time there are good people that do the job.

Unfortunatly the federal grant program to police departments. Involves them performing things that upset the public. The signifigant grants are audited each month for results. For example how many cars where searched? It matters not if there was any indication they should be from a legal perspective. How many arrests occurred?

Many police departments rather than alienate the local population refuse to engage the grants. Many do without really thinking it over. Or find their department with financial concerns if they do not engage them.

These federal grants are alluring and have substantial financial value in nature. New police cars and staff wages fully paid for are far from uncommon. If your department fully complies with the programs. There are various intents behind these programs. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with reducing crime.

Anyways a point of some validity. A country is going to automatically have a higher rate of incarceration. If the average sentence is four times longer for offenses against the law. Than in more developed countries. It would not surprise me if you reduced the prison population by three quarters. It might indicate the true rate of incarceration per capita. For comparison purposes with other countries..

All systems everywhere seem to have issues of one sort or another. We reside about 3-4 miles from the local town of ten thousand people. We arrived here some forty years ago. I believe there were about four police officers including the chief in town. There is virtually no crime locally.

Today they have a large new building with about twenty four officers. Essential same amount of population and still no signifigant crime or property security issues. They also do not ticket people usually. Nor are there any parking meters. So todays cost for that department is reflected by very high property taxes in town.

A few years ago the town tried to annex our area. The county defended the attempt by pleading our area was the strongest county tax area. Personally I expected the town to prevail. If they had we would still be on a well and septic system with at least a five fold property tax increase. If they had prevailed we would have sold and moved out a little further. Personally I think the people in town should be really complaining about the situation.At the same time I suspect it would do little good if they did.

The county provides rented services from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force. But there is really not much for them to do. Primarily domestic disputes and some speed traps far out of town. Crime is also minimal in the county as well. I really feel the police all try to stay on excellent terms with the local population. It is and remains totally safe to be out and about on foot in the whole area. Even in the very early hours of the morning. Drinking and driving has pretty well been eliminated. Simply because of the costs involved today here.

It is a pretty serious offence to own a handgun here. It is pretty much impossible to even get a permit for one. Things like self protection will not cut it. You of course can own a rifle or shotgun. As a result accidental shootings are almost unknown in comparison to south of the border. Although illegal pistols have made their way into the larger Canadian cities. So there are gun deaths all too often as a result now. The majority remain drug related incidents.