Sorry, I didn't mean to show off how much better my country is

Oh, no, I didn't take your comment that way at all!

It's my view that, despite our much-vaunted "leader of the free world" "make the whole world like us" attitude, the U.S. is far behind western Europe in our penal system. Our use of capital punishment, mandatory minimum sentences, and long prison terms, coupled with the lack of serious rehabilitive opportunities for inmates, puts us right up there with countries that our government attacks as abusers of human rights.