Carl,
Thank you for the library suggestion (coincidentally named CARL, nice). What a wonderful resource (and how pathetic that I never used it before!)
On maid-gate: its my impression that the US is a bit of an outlier in how harshly people are treated when arrested and when in prison (among Northern European/Anglo countries). But i must admit that I have (thankfully) zero direct knowledge of these matters in the US or in Northern European/Anglo countries. So the "impression" is a rather impressionistic painting, based mostly on mass media and peer group opinion. Could be wrong.
What do people think? are police procedures in the US better, worse, similar? when compared to Canada or England or Denmark or Germany?