prison state

The British sociologist T.H. Marshall described citizenship as the “basic human equality associated with full membership in a community.” By this measure, thirty years of prison growth concentrated among the poorest in society has diminished American citizenship. But as the prison boom attains new heights, the conversation about criminal punishment may finally be shifting.

Are we beginning to think that, maybe, housing and feeding nonviolent lawbreakers — white-collar criminals, drug users and the like — over long periods of time lacks utility? Good sense? Fiscal prudence?

Last week, when a federal court in Chicago sent international publishing tycoon Conrad Black up the river for six years on an array of financial charges, a University of Toronto professor commented, "When more taxpayer money goes into shutting a white-collar offender up than is spent on a hospital patient or a university student, isn't it time to rethink our assumptions?"