Good Morning Uncle Sam

In the most trying financial period our nation has seen since the Great Depression, the federal government’s entitlement programs are weighing very heavily on an already overburdened economy. Analysts and scholars talk about the issues on a systemic level every day on news programs across the country, and viewers are inundated with first-person accounts of the terrible price many Americans are paying. What has thus far been missing, however, is a grassroots examination of the societal effects from a criminal justice perspective. That wait is now over.

Offering a street-level view of the problems created by an out-of-control government and an exaggeratedly liberal judiciary, Andrew Miles’ analysis is a patriotic call to arms to forego the free—and often counterproductive—ride too often offered in many sectors. A police officer for the past seventeen years, his blunt, factual view is based on thousands of hours working on America’s streets. Focusing on the human impact as well as the fiscal, Miles tackles the difficult subjects of incarceration versus rehabilitation and welfare versus meaningful contribution to explain the fundamental need in our country for reform. Right now our prison system resembles overcrowded housing, offering very little, if any, job or life skills training to help prisoners re-enter the outside world as contributing members of society. Much like the bailouts of corporate giants, this merely creates a system of handouts wherein the cycle repeats and the burden is placed squarely on those who form the backbone of America: the middle class.

A healthy dose of reality and hope, Miles’ no-nonsense polemic is a cold shock to an American system desperately in need of it. An empowering exploration that is sure to change the way you look at our country, Good Morning Uncle Sam is a clarion call for a return to the greatness upon which America was founded.