[TKDietz]

"Our problem is not too many people in prison, it's that we coddle too many people in prison. Prison is not a rehabilitation facilty, it's a place where people are punished. It should be as unpleasant as possible."

This nonsense about prisoners being coddled so much is more urban myth than anything else. I know in my state most prisons are prison farms where they make people work. I've been to several of these facilities. They are overcrowded, extremely unpleasant places to be. We're a poor southern state and we have to spend as little as possible per inmate so these place are anything but country clubs. They work in the sweltering heat and often sleep in nothing more than unshaded tin shacks with nothing coming close to resembling air conditioning. Homosexual rape and other physical assaults are common. No one ever wants to go back. I've seen them cry their eyes out at the prospect of just going there for a few months. I deal with people who are incarcerated all the time and while I've heard horror story after horror story from them I've never had one that said he liked prison or wanted to go back. Most of them are terrified of it and while the fear of going to prison might not stop many from continuing to commit crimes, they'll weasel like crazy to try to stay out after they've been caught.

You can say our problem is not that we have too many people in prison, but the reality is that is a major problem for us. It is costing us an absolute fortune and there seems to be no end in sight to the prison population explosion. Both the actual number of inmates and the per capita percentage of people incarcerated compared to the general population have zoomed up several times what they _ever_ were before things started to get out of hand in the late 1970's. We now really and truly do have more people locked up behind bars than Russia, China, or any other country in the world. We do have the world's highest per capita incarceration rate. We send people to prison left and right, often for stupid little things, and we are paying through the nose to do this, feeding all these people, providing them shelter, medical care, and so on.

Maybe we do need to execute more folks. We sure need to do something because we can't continue things the way we've been doing them the last close to thirty years. Somehow we need to get incarceration rates down because what were doing now is costing us a fortune, turning people into more hardened criminals with more criminal contacts and ties to organized crime, and it is helping in the recruitment effort for the Muslims who have set up shop in our prisons pretending to care about these people they are recruiting. We're going to really regret this someday. It is not conservative. It is a complete departure from the way things used to be. Anyone who tells you different doesn't know what he's talking about.

[little jeremiah]

I appreciate your first hand experience comments. Thanks for posting them.

If all murderers, rapists and child molesters were executed that would clear the decks some. Then the public caning could take care of a lot of them.

[John O]

I know in my state most prisons are prison farms where they make people work. I've been to several of these facilities. They are overcrowded, extremely unpleasant places to be.

Sounds like at least one state gets it. I've seen or heard of far too many prisons with hot running water, TV's weight equipment etc.

Prison should be a 4' x 7' box that the inmate stays in until his sentence is served. For violent criminals it should be a much smaller box that the criminals body is disposed of in.

I also like the one sheriff who dresses his inmates in pink and publicly humilates them. Shame is a powerful motivator

You can say our problem is not that we have too many people in prison, but the reality is that is a major problem for us. It is costing us an absolute fortune and there seems to be no end in sight to the prison population explosion.

Kill the violent ones and the problem goes away. Lots of space left over.

Maybe we do need to execute more folks

Most definately. Dead perps do not commit more crimes. Also serves as a powerful motivator if the perp KNOWS that if he uses a gun in commission of a crime that he'll be put to death. If he commits a violent crime (murder, assault, rape) he'll be put to death. If he molests a child he'll be put to death.

Another poster mentioned public caning. I'd be all for that too. One of our problems is that we've lost the concept of shame. Public humiliation and shaming is a good thing.