Where prison is a step up

Charles R. Jenkins, the Vietnam deserter who fled to North Korea nearly 40 years ago but was recently returned to Japan with his Japanese wife (who herself had been kidnapped by the North Koreans), was demoted, dishonorably discharged and given a 30-day prison sentence. It’s seems a remarkably light punishment for a deserter. On the other hand, Jenkins has been living in a prison, without heat, hot water or electric lighting for nearly forty years It’s hard to see how we could punish him more than that.  It’s unfortunate so many innocents continue to rot in the prison that is North Korea.