Crucial distinction: Poverty causes many things, and many things cause poverty

It’s at least arguable that the United States uses prison, or jail, as a punishment more than just a little too much. However, this new report insisting that half of all families have seen a member sent there is rather less than it seems. The actual statement being made is that half of families have had someone sent there for a night or more, which is very much less horrifying.

The usual distinction is that prisons are run by the feds and states, jails by the counties, and that sentences of less than six months are spent in the latter. Given that half of any group seeing family members in prison would be horrifying, in jail is very much less so. You can, in theory, end up in jail for looking at a cop the wrong way, and who hasn’t done that?