Ask the general public if they think our justice system is too weak and has too many loop holes for criminals to get off and I would bet my life savings that the overwhelming answer to that would be  “yes, of course”. Our legal system is set up to protect the guilty there’s just too many ways to beat the system. We know that in a democracy you’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty but this is ridiculous, right. I mean we’ve all seen the movie where the villain gets off because of some loop hole in our legal system. If only there wasn’t so many ways for these lowlifes to beat the system.

Well then I think you will be glad to know that this couldn’t be more farther from the truth. This might be one of the biggest myths in the American culture today. The fact is the US has one of the highest rates of conviction when someone is arrested then anywhere in the world. “Between 2000 and 2005, 99% of the 435,000 federal criminal defendants prosecuted nationwide were convicted” That’s right a 99% conviction rate! No other democratic country comes even close.  Our only competition is communist China.  What happened to innocent until proven guilty? The truth is that in this country you are guilty until you are able to prove yourself innocent.

Not only do we have one of the highest conviction rates in the world we also have more people in prison per capita than any other country in the world. The US has 23.6% of the world’s prison population and 748 per 100 000 behinds bars. That’s right more the any of the communist countries, more than any of the countries that are run by corrupt dictators, war lords, and insane maniacs.  How in the world is that possible the US is the single greatest, best, freest country God ever gave man right? The fact is that it’s not. It’s just not possible to be the freest country in the world while putting more of your citizens behind bars than anyone else.

So rest assured America, there’s no need to worry when that evil villain gets arrested, the hero can take the day off cause there’s a 99% chance that the villain is going to jail. There are no legal loop holes for criminals to exploit, only a thin vale of protection for our rights in our pretend democracy.  The truth is more innocent people our convicted of crimes that they did not commit then there are guilty people beating the system and getting off scot free.

A new study just came out stating that more and more people are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. In 1984 there were 34,000 people serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. Today that number has more than quadrupled to over 140,000 people out of the total 2.3 million people incarcerated in this country. Two thirds of the people service life sentences are either Latino or Black.

There are five other states besides Iowa along with the federal prison system that do not allow people serving life sentences the possibility of any type of parole or early release. The other five states are Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. Most of these states are facing financial problems due to that lack of revenue coming in because of the current economic recession, and the ever growing prison population is straining state budgets.

The majority of Iowa inmates that are serving life sentences committed violent crimes resulting in someone’s death, but there are others who are serving life sentences because of the felony murder rule that did not commit a violent crime or at least were not the ones how actually murdered someone. It’s obvious that a number of states including Iowa are going to be unable to house the growing prison population over the coming years and will have to start looking for ways to decrease the number of people serving life sentences. Some states and a number of countries have already banned the use of the felony murder rule because of the fact that it is an unconstitutional law that has been unjustly used by prosecutors to imprison non violent criminals for life. It not only makes sense to stop using this law because it is the right thing but because it will help decrease the number of Iowa inmates doing life sentences and decrease the overall population.