You might be interested in this Australian analysis of the USA's astonishingly high levels of incarceration:

With less than 5% of the global population, the USA has more than 20% of the world’s imprisoned people. Yes that’s right, of the nine million or so prisoners in the world’s gaols, two million are in the USA. The rate of imprisonment is 714 per 100,000 there, which is not just slightly or even significantly higher than in comparable countries. It’s wildy higher.

For example, the rate in England and Wales is 142 per 100,000, in Canada it’s 116 and in Australia, 117. In non-English speaking countries some of the rates are even lower: 75 in Sweden, 96 in Germany, 58 in Japan. The only nation of any size that comes even remotely close to the USA is Russia (532).

Doesn’t a social phenonemon like this scream “Hang on, there’s something not right here”?

I have often said that Bush is just a symptom of a sick society. The symptom will abate when Bush leaves office, but the illness still needs to be cured.