What is wrong with these people?

Sentencing can get out of hand in US courts

Last Monday, Elisa Kelly and her ex-husband George Robinson began purging a 27-month prison sentence in a Virginia jail for serving beer and wine at their son Ryan's 16th birthday party.

The parents said they feared Ryan and his friends would drink behind their backs, so they chose to buy the drinks and supervise the party themselves.

But in Virginia, where you can drive a car at 16 and vote, buy a gun or join the military at 18, it is against the law to drink alcohol before 21.

...

In November 1995 in California, Leandro Andrade stole 150 dollars' worth of movies on video tape for his children, including 'Snow White,' 'Cinderella,' and 'Free Willy.' With several prior convictions for robbery under his belt, Andrade was put away for no less than 50 years.

His case went to the US Supreme Court, whose justices upheld the sentence, five-to-four, saying it was not too extreme. The following year, California voters rejected in a referendum a measure to weaken the "three strikes" law.

That is a society totally out of whack. We need to end our ridiculous experiment with mandatory sentencing. Something is not right if there is one inmate for every 136 citizens.