He was under threat of prosecution from the FBI.

US prisons are so full because people do the time.

They’re full because of the prison industrial complex.

Industry has nothing to do with it. Every country has industry. The reason the US has so many in prison is because its people are the more hair-on-fire moralistic crusaders in the civilized world and they want people in prison.

Industry is not what the prison industrial complex is.

The prison industrial complex is a deliberate lengthening of sentences and increasing of mandatory jail time for non-violent offenses designed to increase the for-profit prison population to increase profit.

"Prison industrial complex" is verbal sleight of hand to blame a system rather than people, but in reality these market forces are merely the revealed preference of what people want. If people wanted these inmates free - and by wanted I mean wanted in the revealed preference sense, not the virtue signal on the internet sense - capitalism would have them free tomorrow.

> If people wanted these inmates free - and by wanted I mean wanted in the revealed preference sense, not the virtue signal on the internet sense - capitalism would have them free tomorrow.

That’s not how the world or capitalism works at all. Plenty of people want things and don’t get them.

If you are referring to “a majority of people” then it’s still not how it works - for example the structure of the existing system affects it (see no president Clinton). There is much more to decisions and change.

In this case, a minority of profit seeking people with power use levers of control on decision makers and propaganda to create public policy.

and because people didnt commit suicide when the district attorneys and federal agencies came after them, which is my point

the pressure the US DOJ attorneys put upon him became unbearable. their high pressure tactics which involve piling on charges and threatening the target with so many years in prison as to be lifetime for some can had adverse affects on people. Sadly this is par for the course as the prosecuting attorney and their office do not get called to account for their methods or out comes.

this is very difficult to correct as many times the target is politically acceptable to many and therefor they just give the DOJ free reign to apply it to anyone they choose.

It's important to understand the historical context. Aaron was arrested in 2011, when a lot of other internet politics was happening. Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring, LulzSec (remember Fuck FBI Friday?), Wikileaks, SOPA. "The block was hot" so to speak.

The attitude in DC was, "those people on the internet think they can do whatever they want, we'll show them." Well, they showed us and we lost a truly inspiring person.