Will the US ever stop imprisoning everyone under the sun??

[Twilight Hue]

United States incarceration rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apparently we beat China in 2010 whose population is roughly 4 times larger than ours !!!

Thoughts?

 

[Engyo]

Our prison-industrial complex creates jobs! {/sarcasm}

 

[Father Heathen]

Overcrowding prisons with offenders of non-violent, victimless crimes is as american as apple pie.

 

[TheKnight]

Prison=training camp for turning citizens into better, bigger, and badder criminals.

When I was working strictly with law enforcement, I tried not to arrest people unless the law tied my hands. It's so much better to have them work with you to rectify the situation.

Thank God California gives cops discretion (on most things--Domestic violence, rape, murder...no discretion there) as far as which arrests they make.

 

[dust1n]

Prison=training camp for turning citizens into better, bigger, and badder criminals.

When I was working strictly with law enforcement, I tried not to arrest people unless the law tied my hands. It's so much better to have them work with you to rectify the situation.

Thank God California gives cops discretion (on most things--Domestic violence, rape, murder...no discretion there) as far as which arrests they make.

Zero tolerance is ridiculous, as there is always going to be circumstances which vary in severity, reasoning, intentions and appropriate treatment. Case by case works best.

 

[xkatz]

Build more schools.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Prison=training camp for turning citizens into better, bigger, and badder criminals.

I see some truth in that. It appears once a rap sheet is established and depending on the nature of the charge and stigma, the convict upon release may end up being ostracised and discover it exceedingly difficult to find honest work. Their only recourse? Go back to crime to survive, work in a low pay service job if they can, welfare, or capitalise on a talent they may have picked up in the clink and hope for the best. Not too much to go on.

It can make for a vicious cycle, as I can see and understand why a person may be hesitant to hire an ex-con for the obvious reasons, and the Ex-con trying to go straight, but hits a brick wall in opportunities and options to obtain a good paying job so they can stay out. It snowballs as more and more are brought into the system and are given the distinction of convict. IMO

 

[gnomon]

Decriminalize the production, sale and use of many illicit drugs.

Hey, given the number of people in jails, in prisons and on probation because of the production sale and use of illicit drugs it's going to be the most expedient solution.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Decriminalize the production, sale and use of many illicit drugs.

Hey, given the number of people in jails, in prisons and on probation because of the production sale and use of illicit drugs it's going to be the most expedient solution.

I agree completely.

 

[Dezzie]

United States incarceration rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apparently we beat China in 2010 whose population is roughly 4 times larger than ours !!!

Thoughts?

To answer the question in the subject line... they will stop once they run out of laws to make.

 

[Valjean]

Our prison-industrial complex creates jobs! {/sarcasm}

I don't understand the sarcasm. Private prisons is a huge, influential and growing industry -- and in many communities it really is a major employer.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Decriminalize the production, sale and use of many illicit drugs.

Hey, given the number of people in jails, in prisons and on probation because of the production sale and use of illicit drugs it's going to be the most expedient solution.

This would also take a lot of power away from the Mexican drug cartels and improve the lives of people in many border towns.

 

[Engyo]

I don't understand the sarcasm. Private prisons is a huge, influential and growing industry -- and in many communities it really is a major employer.

I'm not really sure this is what is meant by "sustainable industry"..............or sadly, maybe it is. For that matter, the inmates aren't skewing the unemployment numbers upwards either.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Build more schools.

The problem actually lies in the war on drugs. We have filled jails and prisons with harmless drug users and dealers. And even for hard drugs, the legal consequences are often more damaging than the drug.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

The problem actually lies in the war on drugs. We have filled jails and prisons with harmless drug users and dealers. And even for hard drugs, the legal consequences are often more damaging than the drug.

That's an excellent argument.

 

[TheKnight]

This would also take a lot of power away from the Mexican drug cartels and improve the lives of people in many border towns.

Not really. The main money maker for groups like the mexican mafia isn't marijuana, it's meth. And meth won't be legal any time soon.

Don't get me wrong, marijuana is huge, but decriminalizing marijuana won't stop groups like the mexican mafia. If anything it'll simply give them a reason to conduct legitimate business in the U.S.

Groups like the mexican mafia take over communities with fear and then sap the life out of them. It takes education and proactive law enforcement to stop those sorts of things.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Some of the reasons I understand is that the inflation, at least in part, is due the lengths of incarceration that when compared to other countries, happen to be noticeably excessive for the same crime.

I would first go for reduced term lengths imposed in cases of non-violent offenders comparable to that of other countries for identical crimes committed. I would think that would help lighten the prison populations and supposedly ease the tax burden as well for housing and feeding them. Alternatives such as ankle bracelets and house style arrests in addition to parole, community service, and weekend jail terms may prove much better in a number of cases than full prison terms.

Also, I don't approve of drug use in general, but talks of legalisation of "light" drugs comparable to alcohol use may prove to be a benefit in the sense of weaning the prison population, and perhaps again the tax burden as well. Like alcohol, possession and use is one thing and abuse is another of which there are laws established to combat it. This includes redundancy of laws for arrestable offenses. (Of which multiple charges are imposed on what essentially amounts to a single offense). Redundant laws need to be repealed.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

This is why I'm for arresting people only at night.

 

[Smoke]

What bothers me even more than our idiotic drug laws and imprisoning people for years for victimless crimes is the uneasy feeling that if the U.S. ever wises up on the drug laws, the government will find some other way of filling the prisons. In my more paranoid moments, I sometimes wonder whether the War on Drugs isn't just a pretext for putting such an infrastructure in place.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

In my more paranoid moments, I sometimes wonder whether the War on Drugs isn't just a pretext for putting such an infrastructure in place.

I think it's just a bunch of prudes who have a problem with people getting high. Just look at all the lies that are still being spread about pot.