In its mania for jailing people, Britain has declared trivial offences crimes

an article in the UK newspaper Guardian  by Simon Jenkins (Thursday 12/11/2009) speaks out against the over-criminalization of Britain in an effort to “be tough on crime”.

Quote: Only the Americans among civilised democracies love prisons more than the British. For imprisonment Britain leads Europe, jailing convicts for non-violent crimes that most countries handle with non-custodial sentences, or do not regard as crimes at all. Thousands of British offences are for the “crime” of not obeying a government official.

Hat-tip to Wendy McElroy.