“A drug abuser who indulges at home, is not driving a car intoxicated, who does not sell drugs, and is non-violent, should not be incarcerated. “
Find me a case where they are.
“The poor people get prison time more often because they can not afford good lawyers.”
We tried RAND PAUL’s little experiment - of not putting criminals in jail, for about 30 years (1965 to 1995), and had the BIGGEST CRIME WAVE in this country’s history. I’m old enough to REMEMBER virtually all of it. In Houston they had a TV show called “City Under Siege”. The show ended in the mid 90s, once MANDATORY SENTENCING took hold.
You may miss those days, I SURE AS HELL DO NOT.
I am a fan of the TV show Cops. I watch it many times a week. Every show has incidents where they show people apprehended for minor amounts of marijuana possession, arrested and sent to jail.
Only criminals who should get mandatory prison is violent criminals including domestic violence, drug sellers, burglars, people stealing large amounts of money or goods, hijackers, treasonous acts, etc. A person caught with small amounts of marijuana doe not belong in prison. Incremental fines for each offense is sufficient.