Free 'Fast Eddie'

A federal judge denied former alderman and legendary Chicago political operative 'Fast Eddie' Vrdolyak's request for early release from an 18 month prison sentence after only 3 months servied.

That decision shows why U.S. is the incarceration capital of the world with over. With just 4.4% of the world's population, the U.S. incarcerates 20% of the world's prisoners. That's being No. 1 in judicial stupidity.

'Fast Eddie' at 84, suffering from dementia and other ailments, has no business sitting in a cell trying to figure out where he is, squandering our tax dollars. His imprisonment serves no public interest whatsoever. It certainly won't have any deterrent effect on Vrdolyak's potential recidivism as his life of white collar crime is over. Nor will it deter other white collar criminals. Is any one of those younger crooks thinking, 'Gee, if I get to be 84 and have dementia, they'll cut me a break so I can keep on my wicked, wicked ways till then'.

Over incarceration is one of two great injustices in our judicial system. The Supreme Court's terrible decision today to reinstate Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence is the other...state sponsored murder of bad guys we really, really hate.