I am currently reading The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom by Michael Shermer. While the book is of course about a much broader topic, a part I recently read relates to the kind of prison reform I have often wrote about for this blog. Shermer writes: Working… Read More

In a previous post, Man Facing Life For Pot Brownies, we looked at the absurdity of the massive amounts of non-violent people thrown in prison for various victimless crimes. In fact, as cited with sources in that article, only 8% of inmates in the United States are incarcerated for violent offenses. In the vast majority… Read More

This breaks my heart. Over 2 million people in the United States are in prison. Most are in there for non-violent, consensual crimes such as marijuana possession. Even if we consider only the violent offenders, the fact remains that spending vast effort and money locking people up after they have hurt someone is more inefficient… Read More

I just read a disturbing news article about a Texas man, Jacob Lavoro, who has been arrested for making and selling pot brownies and cookies. If convicted he is facing the same sentence as many convicted murderers because both crimes are first degree felonies in Texas. That’s 5 years to life for selling pot brownies.… Read More