The United States is the world's leading jailer, according to the World Prison Population List, an annual report published by King's College of London. Justice Department statistics show we lock up one in every 200 of our population. Fifteen years ago it was one in every 300. At this rate, every other one of us will find ourselves behind bars by 2036. OK, that's faulty logic, but you get the point.

The growth rate of California's prison population since 1995 equals the national rate. So, has locking up more of the bad guys among us made the rest of us feel any safer? Apparently not. Consider our support for Jessica's Law and the misguided campaign of county supervisors to protect us from the evils of medical marijuana.

Last November California voters approved by a wide margin the law requiring convicted sex offenders to wear anklets enabling law enforcement officials to track their whereabouts for life and to ban them from residing any closer than 2,000 feet from schools, parks, and whatever other area local government deems appropriate.

Jessica's Law is well-intentioned and fulfills our need to express moral outrage over despicable acts, but it won't do much to protect our children. Family members of victims are the ones responsible for most cases of child molestation. With a punishment akin to house arrest for life, who's going to rat out Daddy or Uncle Roy? And the millions spent on tracking their locations won't prevent child molesters from striking again. It will only make them easier to catch after they do.

County supervisors have voted to continue their legal challenge to California's medical marijuana law, claiming it promotes drug abuse and sets a bad example for young people. Making criminals out of the pain-ridden and terminally ill will not curb the biggest drug abusers of all -- adults who misuse prescription drugs. The example they set for their children and the barrage of TV commercials by pharmaceutical companies promising happiness through chemistry are far more influential in shaping a child's future than seeing a sick person smoke a joint.

In a breathtaking combination of fuzzy-mindedness and clear thinking, county supervisors at their Nov. 14 meeting voted unanimously to make it illegal for sex offenders intent on committing a crime to hang out near schools, parks and other places where children gather. The law could be enforced only if offenders explained to police they were there to molest children. The odds against that happening didn't seem to faze our county officials. Like Jessica's Law and banning the medical use of marijuana, it's a well-intentioned, but wrongheaded, effort to protect our children.

At the same meeting supervisors agreed to consider requiring drunken drivers to wear alcohol-detecting ankle bracelets that would prevent them from driving. That makes good sense. We seem to be better at locking people up after they've harmed someone than devising laws to prevent harm from happening. A law that keeps drunken drivers off the road would save both lives and jail space.

Carlsbad resident Richard J. Riehl is a freelance columnist for the North County Times. Contact him at RiehlWorld2@yahoo.com.