[ceejayoz]

Sure, until you get “duly convicted” of a minor crime like speeding or having a joint and sent to the labor camps.

[gottorf]

There's this idea that America's prisons are full of people like you describe, which really isn't borne out by reality at all.

[ceejayoz]

There are quite a few less nonviolent drug offenders in jail than, say, the 1990s, but that doesn't mean it can't swing back.

It's a deeply perverse incentive, even if it's not currently being abused. I don't love having it in the hands of politicians as an option.

[int_19h]

It doesn't really matter. The point is that it would be perfectly compatible with 13A.