A week. Wow. Where is my life going? It seems to be flowing out from under me at a rate that astounds me. I think what happens is illustrated by an episode this morning. I got up at 5, as I do on Mondays, when the possibility of spending a week eating less, smoking no cigarettes, NOT gorging on candy or pie or cake-- seems within my reach. Off to the gym I trundle. I have a pact with myself not to get on the scales more than once a week, and Mondays are my day to do that, too.

I was listening to a fascinating piece on "Thinking Allowed," the BBC program that examines social science research and interviews the researchers.

[Diversion here-- looking for the link for Thinking Allowed, I found this cool blog that reviews podcasts:



...end of diversion.]

I found the notes from the radio program I was listening to this morning. Here's the link to the podcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ta/

Here's the blurb:

America's social state is withering at the expense of its expanding prison system and the UK is heading in the same direction, with potentially disastrous consequences. That's the argument of Laurie Taylor's guest, Loic Wacquant, Professor of Sociology at the University of California.

From 1980 to 1990, spending by the US government on operating its prisons and correctional establishments doubled while at the same time spending on public housing more than halved. According to Wacquant, this process is continuing; he says that 'the construction of prisons has effectively become the country's main housing programme'. Are America's penal policies too harsh, and if prisons and correctional facilities are becoming increasingly important, what are the social consequences?

He talks to Laurie about why he believes America is too ready to accept a state of poverty for huge sections of its population and at the same time see the social state obliterated. Is America punishing its poor and is the UK at risk of following the same path, overly dependent on prisons while eroding its social state?

Actually, the fact that blew ME away was that America's prison population has QUADRUPLED in the last twenty-five years. That's 400 per cent. And over the same time period, the amount of actual crime first stabilized and then declined.

I've known that violent crime in the USA has been declining for some time and that the PERCEPTION of violent crime has increased sharply. Americans are more and more afraid and more and more seeing bad guys around every corner...guys who are young and black, primarily, it seems. And we're sending them off to prison at an astonishing rate.

Listen to the podcast. It's really quite remarkable. And what is most remarkable is that while sociology is being presented, it is not neatly pidgeon-holable as leftist or rightwing conservative. Well, the points of view expressed on this show might be characterized as more left-leaning to our sensibilities. But this prison discussion lays out the facts of our penchant for incarceration really very matter-of-factly.

And throws me into a wild blue funk. What sort of world do I live in here? Obviously, not in any danger of going to prison, and so not really touched by the truth. I think that is what strikes me the most. I'm not touched by reality. I'm safe, warm, well-fed and I just got a new Neal Stephenson book out of the library. While my country, that supposedly believes in liberty and justice for all, has turned into a police state. One that starts wars of imperial ambition. One that doesn't believe in due process, or speedy trials, or the rule of law for everybody. Wow.