140-1-657
IN 2000 four Americans were charged with importing lobster tails in plastic bags rather than cardboard boxes, in violation of a Honduran regulation that Honduras no longer enforces. They had fallen foul of the Lacey Act, which bars Americans from breaking foreign rules when hunting or fishing. The original intent was to prevent Americans from, say, poaching elephants in Kenya. But it has been interpreted to mean that they must abide by every footling wildlife regulation on Earth. The lobstermen had no idea they were breaking the law. Yet three of them got eight years apiece. Two are still in jail.
America is different from the rest of the world in lots of ways, many of them good. One of the bad ones is its willingness to lock up its citizens (see our briefing). One American adult in 100 festers behind bars (with the rate rising to one in nine for young black men). Its imprisoned population, at 2.3m, exceeds that of 15 of its states. No other rich country is nearly as punitive as the Land of the Free. The rate of incarceration is a fifth of America’s level in Britain, a ninth in Germany and a twelfth in Japan.

A. 어휘
lock up 감금하다. lobster 바닷가재. regulation 規定(규정).
enforce 실행하다, 강행하다. fall foul of 충돌하다, 위반하다.
Act 법령. bars 금지하다. poach 密獵(밀렵)하다.
interpret 해석하다. abide by 遵守(준수)하다. footling 하찮은.
footling wildlife regulation 하찮은(평범한)야생 생물 규제법.
apiece 각각. willingness 기꺼이 하는 것, 자발성.
fester 괴로워하다, 곪다. behind bars 투옥되어 있는.
punitive 형벌의. incarceration 감금, 幽閉(유폐).