Posted on 05/21/2014 3:08:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
It depends. I think education is a good idea, since most people in jail are not in for major crimes or even for violent crimes. What should be in jail in their stead are all the union teachers, educational union bureaucrats, and politicians who permitted and encouraged the teachers and bureaucrats to conduct a public educational system where a large percentage of the graduates in certain parts of the country were functionally illiterate, and others graduated with absolutely no job skills and unable to do things like math or even arithmetic, which would have enabled them to learn skills on the job. Plus the schools were so lax that they had no work or behavioral ethics. De Blasio just gave a raise to these teachers...in a perfect world, he’d be in jail now.
Prison does give us a captive audience and a chance to catch up on this. Put in trades schools (even get the crafts unions involved) and basic ed and maybe things will improve. I actually have met people who have come out of prison (depending on the part of the country) with a skill or at least the basic knowledge to get into a program on the “outside” and have taken advantage of it.
Some criminals should be put to death immediately because they are vicious; others should be locked away forever for the same reason; others will be in for many years but even if they were learning and doing something in jail, could make the environment less violent and less conducive to more crime; and others will be out in a few years and it would be beneficial to everybody if they could drop the aimless, unstructured life that got them into criminal activities and get a job with real people in the real world.
LOL. Typical Newt. There are a million programs out there already is a number of states that will provide an education for non-maximum security prisoners and guess what — they don’t want it. And I say this as someone who does a lot of charity work in this area. Its sad — but realistic — to say that prisoners are “prisoners” for a reason. They don’t want to educate themselves and work hard.
Prisoners should be breaking rocks in the hot son for 12hrs a day to reduce recidivism.
Newt needs to shut up now, sit his fat butt down and just write books. He has shown himself to be ... nearly useless.
What you say is true. And what Newt is proposing would be productive.
Except that...
...we all know that a government bureaucracy is incapable of achieving even modest aims. I.e., would the Bureau of Prisons achieve a better educational outcome than the Public Education bureaucracy?
Yeah, this is the kind of thing that government should do. But can't do...
Shut up, Newt.
Maybe the best way to reduce recidivism is to make prison a place that no one in their right mind would ever want to return to.
To think at the time I thought he was the best of the GOP candidates in 2012.
Says more about the sad state of the GOP more than anything.
They fought the Law, and the Law won.
Many of them (the “preferred minorities”) are already offered free college BEFORE they go to prison; they just couldn’t be bothered.
“I think education is a good idea, since most people in jail are not in for major crimes or even for violent crimes.”
I thought only hard cases were being imprisoned at this point (to control costs); have you seen the rap sheets on the perps of some of today’s criminals? Twenty years ago they’d still be in prison for their crimes; now they’re turned loose pretty quickly (if they do any time at all).
“What should be in jail in their stead are all the union teachers, educational union bureaucrats, and politicians who permitted and encouraged the teachers and bureaucrats to conduct a public educational system where a large percentage of the graduates in certain parts of the country were functionally illiterate, and others graduated with absolutely no job skills and unable to do things like math or even arithmetic, which would have enabled them to learn skills on the job.”
So true; I can’t believe the difference between the capabilities of today’s kids and their own perception of their abilities. They (and their parents) have truly been deceived...
Yeah, me too. As the circus guy said, you can fool some of the people all of the time, or something like that. Newty had me fooled, bigtime.
Sure! Let's just give them the keys to the lock boxes and combination to the vault while we're at it!
I almost added a (/sarc) tag to that, but on second thought, they'd probably steal a hell of alot less than the Government and Wall Street.
The white box sounds good. So is the black dolphin. Google black dolphin prison.
Do away with the convict schools.
Do away with the TV’s and the movies.
No radios. No phones. No recorded anything.
No gyms. No healthy never get fat meals.
You, convict, stole from us, but then we have to pay fopr years, to keep you alive?
You, convict, murdered us. But our families get the privilege of watching you grow old, and all they get is a stone marker?
Make the jails the place they were meant to be, punishment.
A convict has a bad heart? Make them run laps!
A convict has cancer? Again, we, are expected to pay for that. Not this kid!
Hey, maybe there is an ex-con out there, sucking up your disability money, because of their brought-on-by-themselves-medical condition????
No mercy from this kid towards an ex-con, period.
I agree...learn to read, write and obtain certification in a trade. One day prisoners will be back in society and live in our neighborhoods. If they have a skill and are able to make a living and pay taxes..we are all better off. Newt is right.
News flash....
Most people in prison are there for drugs or victimless crimes. Your entire argument just crumbled. If your punishment is worse than the crime, you might have an issue. Do you like to resolve issues or do you bury your head in the sand like a coward and double down on stupid?
Do you know any convicts or people that have been to prison? I do and most want nothing more than to move on with their lives. They were all there for drugs. These people are no better or worse than anyone else in society with addictions. Unfortunately they chose the wrong addiction. It’s okay to be a fat ass and burden society, or a drunk, or a pill head, but not illegal drugs. That makes you a piece of garbage worth destroying. Have you ever seen the inside of a prison because I doubt you have and I highly suggest you take a field trip or do some reading. Prisons are not a fun place and neither is jail. It is completely dehumanizing and we wonder why people are worse when they come out. You cant make people into animals then get upset when they do animal things. Im not advocating we make it the holiday inn but our current policies are a TOTAL FAILURE. That cannot be denied... period.
Our Founding Fathers did not intend this country to wrap itself and persecute itself through legalism. Attaching a title to someone because of a mistake does not make you a better person. Closed fist types like you seem to be unable to comprehend the current state of our Judicial and Criminal Justice System and the destruction is wrecks on our society. It doesn’t fix anything, unless you want cheap labor, someone for those who are small on the inside to stand on so they feel “big”. Everyone at any time is one step away from prison thanks to incompetence and the crazed and unethical zeal of our current crop of State Prosecutors. “Show me the man and I will show you the crime”.
Honestly, who believes in the sociopathic nonsense you just spewed? Our criminal justice system is completely out of control. In a vast majority of criminal cases, your freedom depends on your financial status and ability to secure proper counsel. While the poor suffer, rich brats like Bush and Obama get away with doing the same illegal and banned activities who’s prohibition they enforce.
It all comes down to these questions. What is the goal of our criminal justice system and is it working? Are people who leave prison being rehabilitated or not? Once a criminal always a criminal is only true when you encourage it. The system needs to be balanced, not the one sided human suffering show you so coldly advocate.
Now to address the article,
Those in prison should no leave without comprehensive rehabilitation. The issues that got them in should be evaluated and a program put in place to try and correct it. Education, job training, and a legal and ethical career is a far better option than our current plan which is what, put them in timeout for a few years and hope they don’t end up screwing up again? Prison and jail alone is not an effective deterrent against crime. At no point in our history is this more evident than NOW, considering our prison population continues to grow.
Put a program together and implement it. Create achievable goals and scrutinize and evaluate it. If it doesn’t work, burn it and go back to the previous plan or make a new one. There is no excuse for doing nothing. If it is broken, fix it.
Newt is still full of crap and this Right On Crime group is NOT conservative in nature; it’s full blown liberal.
Prisoners already have classes and access to a library. Just think of how many have acquired credits in law school and often have been able to file their own appeals, etc.
Great idea! Then they can populate Mars.
Says more about old age, something I have plenty of experience with. Somehow I have avoided becoming a mush headed liberal, but maybe there is time left.
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