1 in every 32 U.S. adults behind bars, on probation or on parole in 2005

The Daily Mail ^ | 30th November 2006

[wolfcreek]

"Is this truw?"


I believe I heard yesterday, some 53% are in prison for minor (or not so minor) drug offences. There has to be another way!

[ml/nj]

I cannot help thinking that it would be rather more economic to introduce alternative punishments that would be a real deterrant - hanging and flogging, for example.

Castration would work.

ML/NJ

[Uncle Ike]

" the hating itself is not the crime. What people do when they act upon the hate makes them a "criminal". "

Exactly!!

And yet, in most jurisdictions, the "hating, itself" *is* a crime, with its own set of criminal sanctions over-and-above those imposed as retribution for the actual *act*....

[Mrs Ivan]

"Is this truw?"

I've just realised I made a typo! Sorry!

[Husker24]

We have way too many stupid laws.

[Mrs Ivan]

There has to be another way!

It is a very difficult question - there needs to be a real deterrant IMO.

[durasell]

Here are some conservative essays on it. Liberals basically have the same opinion, though different wording.

I've seen workfare work up close. One guy I knew went from third generation workfare to making $85k in under ten years.

I've seen kids from very, very bad neighborhoods working at places like Starbucks or Old Navy, earning a decent enough salary and going to college nights.

Despite popular perception, crime really doesn't pay that well.
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=1615&kaid=115&subid=146


http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/Test062701.cfm

[durasell]

should read "third generation welfare..."

[Revelation 911]

This is also extremely expensive. It costs something like $45,000 a year per prisoner.

that plus an aging boomer population with little or no retirement plans, relying solely on soc security will strain our system to the breaking point

[Khepera]

"I find this odd. I know many people. Hundreds and I can only think of one who was ever in jail for a night and that case was thrown out."

That you know of

[YourAdHere]

Well, the number dropped dramatically on January 20, 2001, when 176 Friends of Bill were given get out of jail free cards.

[durasell]

We'll also have an aging prison population that will require healthcare.

Prison is an attractive solution to many people because it is simple and quantifiable: the bad guys aren't out among us.

However, it's very, very expensive and at the end of the day not very efficient.

[sgtbono2002]

There will always be criminals.

Always someone around who wants something for nothing and will cripple or kill to get it.

If an animal becomes a killer that animal must be dealt with. Ubfortunately we cannot simply "put down" people, we have to jail them.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

This sounds about right to me. That's about 3 out of every 100 people who can't seem to keep out of trouble with the law. And they're obviously being dealt with.

[wtc911]

The "Land of the free, and the home of the brave" is moving ever closer to the Orwellian state where "everything that's not required is forbidden" -- and so an ever-increasing number of us are, techincally, criminals.

----------------------------------------------

OK, tell us all, what recent laws are responsible for the increase?

[durasell]

We'll always have criminals, some of them highly disturbed -- crazy as hell. Check out Richard Rhodes' Why They Kill.

The idea is to save the ones who can be saved

Look, some of these guys are going to end up costing the taxpayer $3 million or more for a lifetime of food, lodging, medical attention, etc. etc. Punishment is very, very expensive.

[uncitizen]

"Today's figures fail to capture incarceration's impact on the thousands of children left behind by mothers in prison," Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group supporting criminal justice reform, said in a statement.

i sense a Lifetime Movie coming....

[CharacterCounts]

Now me, I define a criminal as "someone who breaks the law". Not complicated at all. Doesn't need to be.

Of course there are many more law to break today than existed 50 years ago.

[durasell]

i sense a Lifetime Movie coming....





What you should be sensing is the next generation of criminals.

[AndyJackson]

I define a criminal as "someone who breaks the law".

It is because of idiots like you that people have had it with Republicans. A criminal is someone who breaks the criminal code - that is the law. Breaking the law by violating the civil code does not make you a criminal. For instance, you are not a criminal if you break the law by overstaying your welcome in a parking meter.

Furthermore, there is the problem that a lot of things have ended up being defined as felonies that used to be civil violations only.

And then idiots like you have incentivized the whole game by creating a privatized for profit prison system - and there I definitely part company with Repbuplicans. The power of the state to affect life, liberty and property should be exercised by the state only, and not by private contractors. PERIOD.