It comes down to a question of ideology: is it worse for a guilty man
to go free, or for an innocent man to be unjustly punished?

America's incarceration figures are nothing short of staggering: we have approximately 5% of the world's population, yet approximately 25% of the world's prison population. The number of Americans in prison for victimless crimes, primarily drug use and possession related cases, exceeds the combined total prison population of France, Germany and the UK. Either Americans are notoriously a criminal class, or we have far too many laws imposing too many lengthy prison sentences.

The first thing we need to do is to eliminate victimless crimes from the books. These include:

- personal consentual acts such as family living arrangements, multi-party marriages, adult sexual acts;

- consumption of any substance by an adult;

- crimes "against the government" such as Tax Crimes, Securities law crimes, money laundering, etc;

- sale of any items between adults

It is not the business of government to legislate morality nor to prevent people from leading their lives in voluntary arrangements with others.

To suggest that anyone questioning the viability of the current state of the American prison system is advocating being "soft" on the prosecution and punishment of actual crimes of victimisation -- i.e. those crimes
in which the offender attempts to deprive the victim of one or more of his natural rights to life, liberty and estate, is simply wrong.  By eliminating victimless crimes from the purview of government control,  real crimes against real victims could be the focus of the police and prosecution. This would truly enhance our safety and security.