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Less punishment, less crime
It does not have to be this way. In the Netherlands, where the use of non-custodial sentences has grown, the prison population and the crime rate have both been falling (see article). Britain’s new government is proposing to replace jail for lesser offenders with community work. Some parts of America are bucking the national trend. New York cut its incarceration rate by 15% between 1997 and 2007, while reducing violent crime by 40%. This is welcome, but deeper reforms are required.
America needs fewer and clearer laws, so that citizens do not need a law degree to stay out of jail. Acts that can be regulated should not be criminalised. Prosecutors’ powers should be clipped: most white-collar suspects are not Al Capone, and should not be treated as if they were. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws should be repealed, or replaced with guidelines. The most dangerous criminals must be locked up, but states could try harder to reintegrate the softer cases into society, by encouraging them to study or work and by ending the pointlessly vindictive gesture of not letting them vote.
It seems odd that a country that rejoices in limiting the power of the state should give so many draconian powers to its government, yet for the past 40 years American lawmakers have generally regarded selling to voters the idea of locking up fewer people as political suicide. An era of budgetary constraint, however, is as good a time as any to try. Sooner or later American voters will realise that their incarceration policies are unjust and inefficient politicians who point that out to them now may, in the end, get some credit.

A. 어휘
custodial 拘禁(구금)의, 보호의. replace 대체하다. offender 범법자.
community work 지역사회봉사. buck 강경히 반대하다.
trend 추세. incarceration 구금. Acts 행위. regulate 規制(규제)하다.
criminalise 유죄로 하다. Prosecutors 검찰관. clip 자르다.
suspects 용의자. Al Capone(1899 �)미국의 갱 두목.
Mandatory 강제적인. minimum sentencing laws 형량의 下限(하한)을 규정한 법.
repeal 폐지하다. reintegrate 復歸(복귀)시키다, 복원하다.
pointlessly 무의미하게, 적절하지 못하게. vindictive 징벌의, 복수하는.
odd 이상한. rejoices in 기뻐하다. draconian 苛酷(가혹)한.
political suicide 정치적 자살. budgetary 예산의. constraint 압박, 억제.
inefficient 비능률적인. get some credit 명성을 얻다.