Rebecca Leber interviewed Eugene Jarecki, director of The House I Live In. How Jarecki describes the war on drugs and the American incarceration system:
It’s the single most glaring human rights issue issue facing the United States domestically right now. And it’s one on which a constitutional scholar like Obama could make a tremendous legacy. He could save the country billions. Billions. There’s one law in California right now that may get a revision in November by a ballot amendment that is the three strikes law in the country the most draconian in the country. The third strike could get you a life sentence even if it’s petty or nonviolent. They’re trying to change that to make [it] the third strike would need to be serious or violent. That change alone would release and save California a hundred fifty million dollars a year. In a country that’s hemorrhaging economically I think those arguments are going to become increasingly hard to resist.
The Dish 