I feel like there’s an issue when people in US have a fear of going to prison, even if they haven’t done anything wrong. Like I feel like I’m a good person and keep things kosher, but I still have an irrational fear of ending up in prison somehow.

It shouldn’t be a place that you look forward to going to, but I think we rely too heavily on deterring crime through harsh punishments. Like we have wayyyyy more people in prison than any other country. There are alternatives, but they all still seem infeasible. ARD programs are pretty progressive here, but they’re still too expensive for everybody to participate in them. Btw, what some people have to go through in terms of stress and the expenses they have to pay to get a decent lawyer for a simple crime is enough punishment.