In 1973, Soviet writer and historian, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, shocked the western world with his book, "Gulag Archipelago," exposing the vast prison system where he and other dissidents were held across the Soviet Union Now, almost half a century later, American author and journalist, Howell Woltz, has done the same in his latest book, "Gulag Ameryka," exposing a far larger system of gulags (and injustice) in the United States of America where he and 73 million other Americans --nearly one of every four adults--have suffered. With only 5% of the world's population, the United States now holds 25% of its prisoners. The U.S. has over 5,000 jails, prisons, and forced-labor camps scattered across the nation. It has the highest number of prisoners in world history, as well as the highest rate of conviction (98.6%). The rate of reversible error, even in cases where government is executing the citizen, was recently admitted by U.S. Courts to be 82% over a 23 year period. Using the United States government's own statistics (and seven years of personal experience being held in gulags all across America) Woltz has proven that his nation-- once vaunted as the "land of the free"-- is now the world's least just. When he began speaking out on this subject in America, he was threatened by U.S. Government agents and officials that he would be sent back to the gulag unless he was silent. Woltz escaped to Poland to tell his story. He now lives with his wife in Warsaw, writing and studying Polish language and culture at the University of Warsaw.
