School children learn that there are three branches of government. In actual practice, there is a fourth branch, the permanent bureaucracy which includes legions of civilian and military agents, officers, and administrators committed to protecting their own interests.
Government police, analysts, and lab workers have been repeatedly shown using faulty technology, forging documents, and falsifying lab results to arrest, prosecute, and convict innocent citizens.
Governments routinely bribe suspects into accusing others in exchange for reduced sentences. Thus, suspects are willing to say pretty much anything prosecutors want them to. Governments are fine with this.
In spite of the fact we are told the US is in the grip of a gun violence crisis, new FBI data shows murder rates dropped for the second year in 2018, falling back near 50-year lows.
A truly effective criminal justice system would be built on restitution, not imprisonment and punishment. Moreover, government-funded prisons have no incentive to rehabilitate prisons since they receive funding regardless of outcomes.
Let's set aside the politically tempting task of speculating about what might happen in the event of a No Deal Brexit, what can we say with certainty will happen?
While repealing laws and police reforms are important in alleviating mass incarceration, the problem is likely to continue as long as prosecutors are permitted to operate with so few constraints.
