Posted on 11/30/2006 11:21:21 AM PST by Froufrou
A record 7 million people _ or one in every 32 American adults _ were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday.
More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005. Prison releases are increasing, but admissions are increasing more.
Men still far outnumber women in prisons and jails, but the female population is growing faster. Over the past year, the female population in state or federal prison increased 2.6 percent while the number of male inmates rose 1.9 percent. By year's end, 7 percent of all inmates were women. The gender figures do not include inmates in local jails.
"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. "Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails."
From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I disagree. A large dairy farmer in Idaho decided he would manufacture some meth for his own use. Agriculture investigators arrived to find his herds starving and blobs of brown goop in the barn...the decomposing remains of some of his cows. They confiscated all but 100 head to see if he was capable of managing those cows. He wasn't. The meth turned him from a successful dairy farmer into a worthless meth addict. It wasn't a matter of being able to afford the drugs. He had plenty of money. It destroyed his life anyway.
You advocate making this scenario easy, cheap and legal for everyone. Brilliant.
The party of freaks and fellons!
Take a walk around Baltimore and I bet you will conclude the ratio should be higher.
"A functional addict doesn't rob and pillage for heroin because there is a risk of being caught, and if you are caught you don't get a reduction cure, you get sick and are then forced to quit. So instead the functional addict gets up every morning and goes to work. They work overtime. A functional addict operates the same way as a junky in regards to needing heroin. The difference is that a functional addict has the ability to wait.
Here's another: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:wDH7E41p1CcJ:www.newley.com/archive/stoptime.html+functional+heroin+addicts&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=safari
The author was a functional heroin addict for many years, but, during that time, still managed to live her life free of major disaster. For her, heroin's principle downside is that it wastes time (hence the title). When you spend your life high on heroin, you don't have healthy relationships or a fulfilling job; you just stumble along in opiated bliss.
There are many many more out there. Just because you don't seem to be aware of the number of functional addicts out there doesn't mean they don't exist.
Heroin is only as bad as alcohol,
Why do you think heroin is worse than alcohol? Because it's illegal? I don't need to tell you how many more people have died because of alcohol than because of heroin do I? Or how many more people as a percentage of the population are genetically predisposed to an alcohol addiction?
Still, this isn't the point I was making. Even if heroin was 1000 times worse than alcohol, I still think it should be legal. And adults should be able to decide for themselves what they ingest. Instead of our government making the decision for us.
When I was in grade school (some years ago), I often wondered how many of my classmates would end up in prison...it seemed to me that the world would be a little better place if some of them were locked up.
I don't need to tell you how many more people have died because of alcohol than because of heroin do I?
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Gee, part of the reason wouldn't be because it is legal, and easier to get, would it?
Yep, exactly my point in my #29.
Okay, that's just counting the "Americans".
the world is full of functional addicts.
Heroin is only as bad as alcohol, really.
So your sarcasm not withstanding, how about you tell me exactly why heroin is so much worse for people than alcohol?
http://www.drlucido.com/
Since passage of the 1996 Compassionate Use Act (“Prop 215”), Dr. Lucido has also been performing Medical Cannabis Consultations.
Never. "My scenario" invokes hyperbole. Stand up.
That's what I said for the hardened criminals : chips that cause intense pain and deadman switch chips : power off = serotonin injected into the bloodstream. Then go pick up the body and into the HOLE they go, like the unabomber, shut away for life. As to housing, set aside a section(or more)of land(640 acres)in each state for prisoner-cabins, they are electronically locked down to their own little acre but otherwise live normal lives. No physical contact between plots = no rapes, no gangs. They are NOT in their former homes w/ankle bracklets, the "ankle bracelets" are medically implanted chips, AND the program is optional : either live out here on your own, or in the slammer, your choice.....As to a dopamine injection device, they already inject people with parkinson's disease w/dopamine, why not mobile units for hard core addicts? No, not something you buy over the counter, a specifically prescribed device for specific people. There are some 60 brain chemicals, that's why specific brain chemical-delivery for specific individuals to prevent adverse drug reactions. I don't see this as any great technological leap beyond what is already being done in modern medicine...
The core of the democrat party. 100% true blue democrat voters.
No thanks. I value my TS security clearance. There's no room for any kind of addict where I work. Your cutsie phrase "functional addict" is totally unacceptable in my world.
As opposed to how it is now? Easy, cheap, and illegal. This farmer would have overdosed on meth whether it was legal or illegal. But if it was legal, he could at least seek out help without having to worry about being arrested.
His brain was too fried to care about seeking out help. What he wanted was more meth. That's pretty much all a meth addict wants.
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