Fix the Legal System

In the United States, our prisoners amount to nearly 25 percent of the world’s prison population.

We have more prisoners than any country in the world. The United States has 2.3 million people locked behind bars. This equates to 655 people in jail or prison for every 100,000–at an average cost of approximately $35,000 per year per person. Meanwhile, the U.K. has 140 prisoners per 100,000; Germany has 77 per 100,000; and Japan has 39 per 100,000.

It’s no coincidence then that we have more lawyers than many other Western countries. 391 for every 100,000 people is far more than the United Kingdom’s with 251 lawyers per 100,000 and Canada with 26 lawyers per 100,000. As a result, we have more lawsuits. 5,806 per 100,000 people to be precise, compared to the U.K., the number is 3,681 and 1,450 in Canada.

The Solutions

  1. Require losers of litigation to pay attorney fees and litigation costs of the winner.

  2. Reduce the prison population in the United States by 50 percent by the end of 2024.

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Saving our democracy starts with an educated citizenry that isn't afraid to break from party lines. In this Playbook, Trek Bicycle President John Burke proposes 16 detailed solutions to our country's biggest challenges that are rooted in fact not ideology.