America loves to lock up criminals, but we do so find, that America treats the whole art of crime and punishment, in different ways, depending upon different circumstances, as well as the classification of the crime so committed. That is to say, most everyone knows that if you are going to be a criminal, to the degree that your crime can be classified as “white-collar crime” that it so follows that the corresponding degree of punishment, as well as public opprobrium for such is typically going to be far less than someone that commits “blue-collar crime”. Perhaps that is the way that it should be, perhaps not, but that is the way that these things are adjudicated, and also the reason why certain high-profile criminals, especially those of high status, are often permitted to enter the courtroom through some sort of side entrance or to have special considerations taken into account as to what will or will not happen in their “perp walk,” whereas, your everyday criminal, won’t.
We have been told that the reason that America locks up so many people is because this will serve to be a deterrent to crime, which though logical, somehow seems not to work very well. So too, imprisonment, is considered to be an appropriate punishment for certain crimes, though, not all; but what we so also find is that there is a huge disparity between incarceration facilities, in which some convicts suffer through extreme lockdowns, solitary confinement, and the like; whereas, others are sentenced to minimum-security prisons, of which, there are even a few that allow conjugal visits, as well as there being certain prisons that offer more constructive activities, educational facilities, and a significantly better ambience.
For most people, if they were told that a given entity, poisoned many people over an extended period of time, or deceived many people through sophisticated deception about the safety of that which was being sold, or peddled drugs that were addictive to an individual thereby causing that individual to be harmed or even to die – then most of those same people would want to not only see but would demand that justice be done. Yet, if those that committed such crimes, are powerful corporations, such as in oil and chemical companies, cigarette companies, as well as pharmaceutical companies, what we often get instead is that no single individual or series of individuals are typically held to account for this ill behavior, and at best, those corporate entities are fined, rather than to suffer the indignity of corporate big shots, having to suffer personally for the crimes, that they essentially authorized, approved, and were quite cognizant of the dangers, so of.
Yes, In America, if you’re going to be a criminal, be a big publicly traded corporate criminal, because this government, understands the value of market share, money, and shareholders; and so it has an implicit policy if not an explicit policy that those companies that are big enough and powerful enough, are simply too big to jail, under the mistaken notion that somehow a monetary fine for these corporate entities is justice enough, which simply signifies that in America, if your pockets are deep enough, and when you are shielded by corporate status, that you pretty much are provided with carte blanche to do whatever that you so desire, knowing that you will personally never have to pay anything other than a corporate monetary fine.