Senator Jim Webb of Virginia

Senator Webb was elected in 2006 defeating George Allen after George made some off the cuff remarks that he soon regretted in the age of You tube. Webb has found Washington to be worse than he expected in many ways and has decided that one term is enough. To me this would indicate a man of a serious bent who just cannot bring himself to work at the snails pace and cowards attitude that much of Washington does.

Webb has taken on as his cause prison reform. This is a very toxic subject to politicians. Americans scared of crime and tired of the cases that go wrong and are dramatized by the 24 hour new spin and Nancy Grace et all are under the impression crime is worse than it is.

An article on Newsweek. com recently gave some staggering numbers on American crime and American imprisonment. As a result of mandatory minimum sentencing and the Reagan years war on drugs we have too many people in prison for non violent offenses. In the last 30 years our prison population has more than quadrupled to over 2.3 million. Certainly our population has not increased in that manner.

The numbers are staggering. The incarceration rate for England is 153 per 100,000 people. In Germany it is in the 89, Japan 63, and in the United States 743. As five percent of the global population the United States holds 25 percent of the worlds prison population.

What are we to make of this. Are Americans that much more evil, that much more wrongdoing than other citizens of other countries. The answer of course is no.

Drug offenses make up a great percentage of these crimes. This has been a political third rail for politicians. No one wants to be accused of being soft on crime. All it takes is one person out of jail with a record to do something bad and instantly you are too easy on criminals. The facts also point to the cost of prison care. In a time of budget cuts the cost of the prison population is an albatross.

We do not want to let out violent criminals. Still clearly we are doing soemthing wrong, our crime is greater than other industrialized countries. We lock up too many people.

One way to attempt to correct this is to be grown ups and admit we have a problem without holding those that choose to acknowledge it as soft on crime.

Jim Webb is brave to do so, it is a shame he realizes that he could not get reelected after making this his signature issue.