Was it Voltaire?

I think it was he who said, "You can tell the degree of a country's civilization by looking at its prisons." Or something like that anyway.

The US has the greatest percentage of its population in jail of any country in the world. (That includes Iran and other so-called dictatorships.) Many (most?) prisons are for-profit enterprises whose job it is to squeeze the most out of the inmates while returning the least to them.

Often, if you want to complain about inhuman conditions, you have to PAY to file a grievance. Such would be impossible in a civilized country.

Yeah, let freedom ring!