It's no coincidence that our single country houses over twenty five percent of the world's prisoners. Substandard conditions and abuse are due to this overcrowding and lack of regulation. Incarceration is not the answer to drug addiction, a move toward rehabilitation and support is need to solve this problem. Never the less, Americans seem to have no problem with the lower class' mass exodus into jail cells. We believe if we obey the law, go to church, and keep our heads down then we can do no wrong, but a question arises. Who or what decides what is wrong and what is right? If we continue to not care, to not speak out and to unquestioningly obey what our government dictates, we are to be transformed to sheep, quietly subdued as our perception of right and wrong changes with our governments will.
The eighth amendment to the United States constitution prohibits the use of cruel and unusual punishment, this includes torture. In our culture, torture has always been seen as a viable way for criminals, thugs, religious zealots and gangs to gather information and gain confession. We see countless movies made in the eighties and nineties where this is depicted. There's a shift in this as we move to the two-thousands. As more movies are made telling the tales of the "heroes" of our imperialist military, propagandists depict "the good guy" mercilessly torturing the always guilty confessionary. Because of the influence pop-culture has on our society, we begin to perceive torture as a morally and culturally acceptable means of interrogation. Our government has been caught using torture as form of interrogation, but this isn't a legal issue. Bills such as the PATRIOT act allow our government to operate outside of the confines of the constitution. This bills allows indefinite detainment and torture of citizens and immigrants suspected of involvement or relation to our government's ever broadening definition of terrorism.