DECEMBER 1998 | Volume 282 No. 6   The Prison-Industrial Complex The number of Americans behind bars is now larger than the prison population in all of China -- and it continues to grow, even as violent crime rates fall. The economies of whole regions have been skewed toward incarceration, and the job of incarceration is increasingly being handed over to private companies. America's prison-industrial complex, the author argues, is rapidly corrupting the criminal-justice system. by Eric Schlosser Lost in Translation "A penny, which becomes secured, is an acquired penny" -- behold the metamorphosis of one familiar saying, after a computer-aided excursion from English into German and back. But computer programs that can translate are actually getting to be quite good. by Stephen Budiansky America's Maginot Line The development of ballistic missiles that any country can obtain threatens to make America's military presence in Asia untenable. by Paul Bracken   Reports Notes & Comment: Back to Basics Some of the steps toward a more satisfying political life may be surprisingly simple. by Cullen Murphy Personal File: Neshering The intimate jumble of a shared taxicab ride in Israel. "We have put our trust in him," the author writes of a typical Nesher Company cabbie. "Here in the Middle East that is no trivial act." by Edith Pearlman Foreign Affairs: Hoods Against Democrats "Within twenty-four hours of crossing into Bulgaria by train from Romania," the author recalls, "I began hearing two words over and over again: 'wrestlers' and 'groupings.'" Both of these terms refer to a new type of crime syndicate that is operating in the former Communist world. by Robert D. Kaplan Humor, Fiction, & Poetry Invention A poem by Billy Collins Today Is Sunday A short story by Peter Ho Davies Web-Only: On the Sly An Atlantic Unbound interview with Peter Ho Davies. Crepe Myrtles A poem by Cathy Smith Bowers Browse and search The Atlantic's online archive. Arts & Leisure Travel: An Old-fashioned Christmas Savoring the holiday season in Salzburg and Vienna. by Corby Kummer Music: Mahler's Unfinished Symphony We can now hear several versions of Mahler's Tenth, a work that should at last be recognized as among the composer's greatest. by William H. Youngren Books Dirty Hands Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992, by William M. LeoGrande by Benjamin Schwarz Brief Reviews by Phoebe-Lou Adams Other Departments 77 North Washington Street Contributors Letters (Send a letter to the editor.) The December Almanac The Puzzler by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon Word Watch by Anne H. Soukhanov The seahorse symbol indicates that an article is supplemented with audio, an author interview, or other Web-only sidebar. All material copyright © 1998 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.