"I'm against prison for non-violent drug offenders". A post at DU attributes that statement to Obama, presumably recently. This too: "It (prison) doesn't help them, it gives them a higher degree in criminality". If he really is still saying such sensible things on such a hot unmentionable issue, it will give me a great deal of encouragement on this and other issues as well, and on his ability to straightforwardly defend his past statements rather than running from them and looking scared and inconsistent. Somehow I doubt that was a recent statement.