RED STATES

Freedom's on the march everywhere.

After a 20 year run up in the incarceration rate for black men, drug users, and scabby-armed meth addicts, some states have finally decided the morally indefensible discrimination against women in their jurisdictions had gone on for far too long.

According to an A.P. piece over the weekend, this increase in female incarceration has occurred in a few "mountain states," though Oklahoma receives most of the article's attention. Anyone know a big mountain in the Sooner State?

To the surprise of no one, much of the run-up in the female prison population stems from drug-related convictions. In fact, according to the Woman's Prison Association, "the proportion of women serving time for drug offenses has risen sharply in recent years, while the proportion convicted of serious violent crimes has dropped." While my insiders tell me that the Women's Prison Association is composed entirely of middle-aged porn afficionados, their statistics are nonetheless considered trustworthy.

I'm not gonna argue that meth-addled, law-flouting mothers are any sort of gift to child-rearing, but I can't get rid of the foul stench of hypocrisy when I see states such as Texas, Mississippi and Montana -- those would be "Family Values States" -- tossing these ladies in prison, leaving their children to the fates.