If you don't want to go to prison, don't break the law. What a concept...
A program about Miami jails in the UK recently made the point that those giant jails are exclusively for those awaiting sentence, i.e. not guilty... they can be in maximum security violent facilities for years while still legally innocent.
It certainly is bothersome to me -- at 1% of the population I believe that's anywhere between 2.5 and 3 million people. To put that into perspective, that's 5-6 cites the size of Seattle worth of people -- or about all of the Seattle-metro area, which includes 6 counties and 5 major cities (Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Bellevue).
I think that, most definitely, all criminals should be in jail for a period that fits the crime and damaged caused, with consideration given for criminal repetition, pattern of crimes (is the person a serial burglar, are their crimes becoming increasingly risky or violent), and mitigating circumstances. I do think we need to re-define what constitutes crime, re-examine penalties attached to various crimes, and to completely do away with three-strikes, at the very least for non-violent crimes (I would define violent as the threat of a weapon, or actual use of physical force).
I think the biggest part of the mess is the criminalization of Marijuana and all the low-level crimes and arrests surrounding that. I think decriminalization of simple possession and legalized sales would make a huge dent in annual prison intake. I would also advocate that people in jail or prison for simple possession, or for which simple possession make up a portion of their three strikes be unbound by the minimum and commuted to appropriate sentences, less time served.
Another more general problem with three strikes, minimum sentences and "tough on crime" is that we've taken the ability of Judges to... you know... judge. That is their job after all -- they have two essential duties -- to conduct the trial, and to determine punishment based upon the jury conviction, the facts of the case and considering mitigating circumstances. Granted that a freer system can be abused, and will no doubt end up in a criminal who slips through the system with minimal punishment and then goes on to commit some henous act (generally the scenario that brought about 3 strikes and manditory minimums), but as tragic as that might be, we'd probably come out ahead on the balance of the whole.
Of course, as nice as this might be, we won't see these changes, certainly not now when people's concerns are elsewhere, and their biggest fear is some newly-released criminal either a) taking their job, or b) finding no job and resorting to crime.
Certainly its not a simple problem to address though, there's a whole web of socio-economic and other issues that drive criminal activity.
In 2007, [a] 13-year-old wrote “Okay” on her desk, and police handcuffed and arrested her. She was one of several students arrested in the class that day; the others were accused of plastering the walls with stickers.
At schools across the country, police are being asked to step in ... a food fight at a middle school in Chicago, Illinois, resulted in the arrests of 25 children, some as young as 11.
I wonder if these will count towards their three strikes...
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From wikipedia:
"The term police state describes a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive."
[quote name='ChurchSkiz' timestamp='1306852471' post='4817883']
If you don't want to go to prison, don't break the law. What a concept...
A program about Miami jails in the UK recently made the point that those giant jails are exclusively for those awaiting sentence, i.e. not guilty... they can be in maximum security violent facilities for years while still legally innocent.
How's that for a concept.
[/quote]
That's a different discussion. If people that are awaiting trial are stuck in prison for years then that is a major issue.
Also, awaiting sentencing is not the same as not guilty. Awaiting sentencing means you are a convicted criminal but your sentence hasn't been decided yet. Maximum security could be appropriate depending on the crime. If you're in maximum security you probably won't get out for time already served at sentencing so I can't see this would be a problem in all but the rarest of cases.
Parents are finicky about what happens to their children. It's sometimes easier to just have police deal with vandals. Maybe the kids will get placed in safe homes with proper parenting. If the teachers do anything else they could be held responsible or worse sued which schools can't really afford.
The idiopathic idiocracy on both sides, either being too lenient in preference for 'rehabilitation' (read: release) of prisoners or arresting 'criminals' for charges bordering on the insane, is becoming less and less amusing. Really, how hard is it to set up a system where, you know, rapists, murderers, thieves and general misdoers get arrested and sentenced to jail instead of a twelve-year old cluttering a desk? Or that dude who smokes marijuana at home? Really? Heck, if the police reacted like that on children being children over here it would have to arrest half the population... probably more.
Ah, the rule of the hypocritical hardliners and the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned baby-sitter mentalists; not that the 'agnostic' system-is-what-it-is apologists are any better. Why can't science and common sense sneak it's way into politics? It's like an unhappily married couple, and everything just ends up with them arguing until finally one sleeps on the couch while the other takes the bed. Look, the system exists for two reasons (looking at it ideologically; don't feed me your cynicism!) A) to provide a way for someone who breaks the system to get back in the system and B) to prevent people from committing harm to themselves or, more importantly, to others. That's it.
Now tell me, honestly, how does the current system do that? Profit from prison systems? Oh yeah, what a great idea. Meh, I won't rant on any more, but hell, don't you see something must be fundamentally wrong when we can't do better than either A) letting a rapist go to prison, pay a fine, and four months later get out for 'good behavior' or B) arrest a twelve-year old for doing what every twelve year old does? Must it really be one of those two extremes?
Ugh, okay. I'm done.
"I will personally burn everything I've made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch them in the flames."
~ Gabe
"I don't mean to rush you but you are keeping two civilizations waiting!"
~ Cavil, BSG.
"If it's really important to you that other people follow your True Brace Style, it just indicates you're inexperienced. Go find something productive to do."
[size=2]~ Bregma
"Well, you're not alone.
There's a club for people like that. It's called Everybody and we meet at the bar[size=2]."
- About 1% of the population of the United States is in prison.
America should do like China and execute their murderers, rapist, pedophiles. 1 trial and 3 quick appeals and boom they die. Give the judges the power to reclaim the money for their states safety net programs that take care of the poor and the sick. (Don't you think orphans deserve the money more than a child rapist that murdered a kid?)
And they should get rid of their silly drug laws. What people do with their bodies is their own business.
What bothers me is the cost of all these prisons and supporting all these prisoners. If someone shop lifts 3 times for say $100 item (this is $300 stolen), but the US tax payers are gonna pay for his/her food and prison room for the next 25 years? That doesn't make sense at all. Even if it was just 1 year in prison it would be too expensive.
Are America's prisons filled with shoplifters? I don't know the real number, but I would imagine the number of nonviolent offenders that are locked up would be a really small majority(and most of them probably have a history of past violence).
Are America's prisons filled with shoplifters? I don't know the real number, but I would imagine the number of nonviolent offenders that are locked up would be a really small majority(and most of them probably have a history of past violence).
