Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, which supports alternatives to prison, said the incarceration rates for blacks were troubling.

"It's not a sign of a healthy community when we've come to use incarceration at such rates," he said.

Mauer also criticized sentencing guidelines, which he said remove judges' discretion, and said arrests for drug and parole violations swell prisons.

"If we want to see the prison population reduced, we need a much more comprehensive approach to sentencing and drug policy," he said.

Amen to that. 

A country that has so many people behind bars is clearly doing something wrong.  Especially in an era when crime rates are falling.

Perhaps we should rethink our approach to lawbreakers and how best to rehabilitate them.  Is sitting in jail really the most effective way?  Especially for the nonviolent?

The link: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/21/D8HODD7G0.html