There are more black men in US prisons today than there were slaves in 1840, and they are being used for the same purpose; working for private corporations at 16 to 20 cents an hour. Half the states have private, for-profit prisons whose lobbyists are demanding longer mandatory-minimum prison sentences. Indeed, American blacks are incarcerated at nearly eight times the level of South African blacks during the height of apartheid.

That’s from an incredible op-ed in Saturday’s Boston Globe by Jack A. Cole, the Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Amazing, courageous, timely, truthful — is it any wonder this isn’t even an issue in the presidential campaign?