heavy price for an ethos afflicted by wantonness waste, in official human indifference. the author of those words is a foreigner, conrad black. once one of the world's most powerful media barons who spent more than three years in a u.s. prison on charges of fraud. whatever one thinks of black's own case which is complicated, his lessons are worth taking seriously. since they come from a friend of america and a hard-line conservative at that. it is well known by now that with nearly 5% of the world's population black says the united states has 25% of the world's prisoners. america's prison population sm many times higher per capita than that of other advanced democracies like canada britain, france and japan. prosecutors in the united states win 95% of their case, black says. 90% of them without ever having to go to trial. that conviction race is 60% in canada and around 50% in britain