Rash

Über

Rash is a 2006 novel written by Pete Hautman. It is set in the year 2074, in a futuristic United States, now called the United Safer States of America, that has become obsessed with safety and security. Nearly every potentially unsafe action has been criminalized, to the point that 24% of the population is incarcerated. Ironically, this large criminal population also provides the manpower that fuels the large corporations that now dominate the country.
Kirkus Reviews calls the book "a winner", saying that it is "bitingly funny and unexpectedly heartwarming". "In a starred review, PW called this dystopian fantasy of a futuristic nation wracked by litigiousness and terrorism "intelligent and darkly comic."