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John Grisham: men who watch child porn are not all paedophiles
The London Telegraph ^ | October 15, 2014 | Peter Foster

Posted on 10/16/2014 8:04:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

As best-selling novelist John Grisham prepares to publish his new legal thriller, he argues America's prison system has run out of control.

America is wrongly jailing far too many people for viewing child pornography, the best-selling legal novelist John Grisham has told The Telegraph in a wide-ranging attack on the US judicial system and the country's sky-high prison rates.

Mr Grisham, 59, argued America's judges had "gone crazy" over the past 30 years, locking up far too many people, from white collar criminals like the businesswoman Martha Stewart, to black teenagers on minor drugs charges and - he added - those who had viewed child porn online.

"We have prisons now filled with guys my age. Sixty-year-old white men in prison who've never harmed anybody, would never touch a child," he said in an exclusive interview to promote his latest novel Gray Mountain which is published next week....

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: crime; internet; paedophiles; pedophiles
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To: This Just In

Agreed. Too little, too late. He showed his real colors, and can’t walk it back now.


21 posted on 10/16/2014 8:28:31 PM PDT by highball ("I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." -- the last words of Humphrey Bogarte)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
.... the country's sky-high prison rates . . . There are currently some 2.2m people in jail in the US – or more than 750 per 100,000 population – which makes the US by far the heaviest user of prison sentences in the world. By contrast, Britain imprisons just 154 per 100,000 population.

I believe these are the federal numbers.. something around 215,000 if I understand these Federal Bureau of Prisons data. I have not found the very latest numbers for state and local yet.

Federal Bureau of Prisons Tables, August 2014

Age # of Inmates % of Inmates
Under 18 35 0.0%
18-21 2,870 1.3%
22-25 12,956 6.0%
26-30 28,976 13.5%
31-35 40,449 18.8%
36-40 38,633 18.0%
41-45 31,882 14.8%
46-50 22,839 10.6%
51-55 16,220 7.6%
56-60 9,750 4.5%
61-65 5,548 2.6%
65 4,541 2.1%

Native Country
# of Inmates % of Inmates
Colombia 2,023 0.9%
Cuba 1,452 0.7%
Dominican Republic 2,077 1.0%
Mexico 36,236 16.9%
Other/Unknown 10,672 5.0%
United States 162,239 75.6%

Ethnicity # of Inmates % of Inmates
Hispanic 74,338 34.6%
Non-Hispanic 140,361 65.4%



Gender # of Inmates % of Inmates
Female 14,314 6.7%
Male 200,385 93.3%



Race # of Inmates % of Inmates
Asian 3,316 1.5%
Black 80,091 37.3%
Native American 4,041 1.9%
White 127,251 59.3%

Sentence # of Inmates % of Inmates
Less than 1 year 6,668 2.3 %
1-3 years 23,891 11.8%
3-5 years 27,130 13.4%
5-10 years 51,460 25.4%
10-15 years 40,988 20.3%
15-20 years 22,265 11.0%
More than 20 years 24,450 12.1%
Life 5,493 2.7%
Death 58 0.0%



Offense # of Inmates % of Inmates
Banking and Insurance, Counterfeit, Embezzlement 724 0.4%
Burglary, Larceny, Property Offenses 7,913 3.9%
Continuing Criminal Enterprise 454 0.2%
Courts or Corrections 827 0.4%
Drug Offenses 98,964 48.8%
Extortion, Fraud, Bribery 12,428 6.1%
Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses 5,775 2.9%
Immigration 20,853 10.3%
Miscellaneous 1,545 0.8%
National Security 81 0.0%
Robbery 7,514 3.7%
Sex Offenses 13,329 6.6%
Weapons, Explosives, Arson 32,203 15.9%

Security Level # of Inmates % of Inmates
Minimum 36,787 17.1%
Low 83,753 39.0%
Medium 62,586 29.2%
High 24,036 11.2%
Unclassified 7,537 3.5%

22 posted on 10/16/2014 8:29:35 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He was actually talking about borderline cases, including an acquaintance of his who got busted for downloading pictures of 16-year-olds. "I have no sympathy for real paedophiles,” he said, "God, please lock those people up. But so many of these guys do not deserve harsh prison sentences, and that's what they're getting,"

He's going to have to do better than "so many of these guys" before I come close to buying it. Most of the cases I've read about in the press aren't drunk 60-year-olds caught by sting operations, they're people who have thousands of pictures that are clearly not borderline teens, clearly show the abuse of young children, and who tend to be trading or trafficking in same. That's a completely different thing. If someone pays someone for child pornography he's paying that individual to abuse children, or to pay someone else to do so. That isn't guilt-free, and it isn't victimless.

23 posted on 10/16/2014 8:30:28 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Alex Trebek: This lawyer-turned author had a printed a primer of pedophile apology. The public was apoplectic. It was his last novel.

Contestant #3: Who was John Grisham?

24 posted on 10/16/2014 8:30:29 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (Immigration without assimilation is the death of a nation)
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To: QuisCustodiet1776
I've got very mixed feelings on this.

People who produce kiddie porn ought to be strung up by their johnson until dead. Of that, I am sure.

But I'm also concerned about how easy it is to plant something on someone's computer for political or other nefarious purposes.

We had an incident in our region where a pervert was "spoofing" somebody else's computer to upload this crap.

The guy who got spoofed was very lucky the cops didn't just arrest him because it was convenient and the evidence all pointed at him. Instead, he used his computer to help them catch the real perp.

So, yes, there really needs to be a clear distinction made. I also think a crippling fine and registration as a sex offender would be a more appropriate punishment for some of the older consumers rather than prison time.

Prisons ought to be reserved for society's most dangerous who need to be removed from the general population. A sick puppy viewer only is probably no more dangerous than a casual drug user. Both definitely need to be monitored but not incarcerated unless other factors indicate they are a real danger.

25 posted on 10/16/2014 8:31:00 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: highball

Agreed. Never say something that makes you look stupid.

I mean we all say things we don’t mean and that’s one thing but other things are best left unsaid.

If Grisham didn’t know about the latter rule, he has no business being a writer.


26 posted on 10/16/2014 8:32:32 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Captainpaintball

Exactly


27 posted on 10/16/2014 8:33:33 PM PDT by This Just In
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Typical out of touch idiot, I don’t care if he is a lawyer he is wrong those that are in prison are there for their crimes. This is like saying Hitler was not wrong because he also killed gypsies and others besides Jews.


28 posted on 10/16/2014 8:37:32 PM PDT by Busko (One thing is certain, nothing is certain.)
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To: goldstategop

The man’s a writer. His profession involves words, and the use thereof in telling stories. His comment wasn’t some flippant remark during some unexpected question while he was hailing a cab. He stated those comments during an interview.

John, say goodbye to your career. I’ll never read another novel from a child porn enabler.


29 posted on 10/16/2014 8:39:25 PM PDT by This Just In
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Through my involvement in helping victims find freedom, I have realized that any man minimizing the impact of child porn or child molestation is a man to watch carefully. Also any man who starts splitting hairs over definitions related to these issues.


30 posted on 10/16/2014 8:42:17 PM PDT by JimSp
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To: JimSp

Maybe he was “just researching a book” or something.


31 posted on 10/16/2014 8:44:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

John Grisham apologizes after troubling statements about child porn

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/john-grisham-apologizes-after-troubling-statements-about-child-porn/ar-BB9st64?ocid=ansLATimes11


32 posted on 10/16/2014 8:45:39 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Liberalism empties treasuries, blackens souls, and decimates everything it touches)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

And now we know the truth about Grisham....

He has revealed his deepest secret. A bit Freudian don’t ya think?


33 posted on 10/16/2014 8:51:52 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: WilliamofCarmichael

What % of those 127,000 whites are Hispanic?


34 posted on 10/16/2014 8:52:43 PM PDT by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: JimSp

You hit the proverbial nail right on the head.


35 posted on 10/16/2014 8:56:14 PM PDT by This Just In
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To: wac3rd
What % of those 127,000 whites are Hispanic?

The table appears to show that about 35% of all US inmates are Hispanic and about 65% are non-Hispanic. If I am reading it correctly.

Some of the black inmates could be Hispanic, but most of the Hispanics are undoubtedly labeled white.

This is typical of the games that the Left plays with crime statistics; Hispanics are counted as black when they are victims, and counted as white when they are perps.

36 posted on 10/16/2014 9:31:23 PM PDT by ChicagahAl (Don't blame me. I voted for Sarah.)
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To: All
Here are the 2013 city and county jail numbers, 731,208, if I read the documents correctly. With the federal prisoners that makes about one million. The article said that there were 2.2 million. I guess state prisons hold 1.2 million. I'll try to find the numbers.

Jail Inmates at Midyear 2013 - Statistical Tables

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics

Table 2 Number of inmates in local jails, by characteristics, midyear 2000 and 2005–2013
Characteristic 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011a 2012a 2013a
Totalb 621,149 747,529 765,819 780,174 785,533 767,434 748,728 735,601 744,524 731,208
Sex
Male 550,162 652,958 666,819 679,654 685,862 673,728 656,360 642,300 645,900 628,900
Female 70,987 94,571 99,000 100,520 99,670 93,706 92,368 93,300 98,600 102,400
Adult 613,534 740,770 759,717 773,341 777,829 760,216 741,168 729,700 739,100 726,600
Male 543,120 646,807 661,164 673,346 678,657 667,039 649,284 636,900 640,900 624,700
Female 70,414 93,963 98,552 99,995 99,172 93,176 91,884 92,800 98,100 101,900
Juvenilec 7,615 6,759 6,102 6,833 7,703 7,218 7,560 5,900 5,400 4,600
Held as adultd 6,126 5,750 4,835 5,649 6,410 5,846 5,647 4,600 4,600 3,500
Held as juvenile 1,489 1,009 1,268 1,184 1,294 1,373 1,912 1,400 900 1,100
Race/Hispanic origine
Whitef 260,500 331,000 336,500 338,200 333,300 326,400 331,600 329,400 341,100 344,900
Black/African Americanf 256,300 290,500 295,900 301,700 308,000 300,500 283,200 276,400 274,600 261,500
Hispanic/Latino 94,100 111,900 119,200 125,500 128,500 124,000 118,100 113,900 112,700 107,900
American Indian/Alaska Nativef,g 5,500 7,600 8,400 8,600 9,000 9,400 9,900 9,400 9,300 10,200
Asian/Native Hawaiian/
Other Pacific Islanderf,g
4,700 5,400 5,100 5,300 5,500 5,400 5,100 5,300 5,400 5,100
Two or more racesf ... 1,000 700 800 1,300 1,800 800 1,200 1,500 1,600

Note: Detail may not sum to total due to rounding. ...Not collected.

a - Data for 2011-2013 are adjusted for nonresponse and rounded to the nearest 100.

b - Midyear count is the number of inmates held on the last weekday in June.

c - Persons age 17 or younger at midyear.

d - Includes juveniles who were tried or awaiting trial as adults.

e - Data adjusted for nonresponse and rounded to the nearest 100. See Methodology.

f - Excludes persons of Hispanic or Latino origin.

g - Previous reports combined American Indians and Alaska Natives and Asians, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders into an Other race category.

Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Annual Survey of Jails, 2000 and midyear 2006–2013, and the 2005 Census of Jail Inmates.

I have not yet double checked these figures but I merely copied the table image text and numbers then added the HTML. They should be correct but I'll double check before I keep this in my files.

37 posted on 10/16/2014 9:32:51 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: Molon Labbie

Exactly!


38 posted on 10/16/2014 9:32:55 PM PDT by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: wac3rd
RE: What % of those 127,000 whites are Hispanic?

I cannot say. But you can go by the city and country jail numbers in my reply immediately above this one to get a good idea.

39 posted on 10/16/2014 9:36:00 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: Defiant

Exactly. He said what he really meant, in the interview. Sicko.


40 posted on 10/16/2014 9:38:10 PM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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