Recreational Incarceration

This week a main topic on regular talk radio has been the Pew Center study that found we put more people in jail than any nation on the planet. Even the Chinese are stunned by our numbers.

Last night, meanwhile, a main topic on JT the Brick’s nationally syndicated sportstalk show (heard locally on WTEM-AM) was about whether Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds would go to jail first. While I was listening, neither the callers nor the host mentioned the Pew findings, or questioned the wisdom of spending government resources to police athletics.

And while the country’s mood seems to be in favor of imprisoning athletes who allegedly lied about taking performance enhancing drugs under oath: Self-described clean cycling activist Matt DeCanio, a product of Orange County, Va., has started a petition to have the feds investigate Lance Armstrong for the very same crimes that public officials are trying to put Clemens and Bonds away for.

Makes sense to me.