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Inaugural rhetoric about freedom and liberty in prison nation

By Douglas A. Berman

I am about to sign off to go watch the inauguration activities on television, but I feel obliged to first remind everyone that soaring inaugural rhetoric does not necessarily translate into improved practical realities.  And I stress this point with a particular focus on our leaders' tendency to talk big about freedom and liberty in America, even while the United States continues to be a world leader in incarceration rates and extreme terms of imprisonment. Against this backdrop, it bears noting that out-going President Bush started his second term with an Inaugural Address in 2005 that mentioned freedom 27 times and mentioned liberty 15 times.  Included in that 2005 speech were the inspiring assertions that "The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world" and "In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).