A small county in Indiana sends more people to prison than San Francisco and Durham, N.C., combined. This New York Times article looks at how prison populations are declining in most populous areas in the USA but are booming in mostly white, conservative rural areas.

If Mr. Gaddis had been caught 20 miles to the east, in Cincinnati, he would have received a maximum of six months in prison, court records show. In San Francisco or Brooklyn, he would probably have received drug treatment or probation, lawyers say.

But Mr. Gaddis lived in Dearborn County, Ind., which sends more people to prison per capita than nearly any other county in the United States. After agreeing to a plea deal, he was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison.

They obviously didn’t get the memo that the war on drugs was lost.

Via NextDraft