Murder Spike Poses Quandary

Wall Street Journal ^ | May 6, 2008 | Gary Fields

[reaganaut1]

Some people quoted in the article say the problem is "mass incarceration" and people become violent criminals in prison. Maybe the problem is letting out some people who should be kept in jail, or executed if they committed murder.

The New York Times recently had a long story on the same problem: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/magazine/04health-t.html

[mtbopfuyn]

This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration

The death penalty would take care of part of the problem.

[bill1952]

Sooooooooo. hows that total gun ban working out again?

[cowboyway]

nightspot in an upscale part of the nation's capital when he was shot in the back five times. --- He was one of 14 people, all African-Americans, to die in a 13-day spasm of violence.

Good thing they have gun control...............

[stylin19a]

"He was one of 14 people, all African-Americans, to die in a 13-day spasm of violence

killed by who ?

[caseinpoint]

Amish?

[wideawake]

These cities are hollowed-out hulks that incentivize criminals more than they incentivize law-abiding citizens.

High taxes, few jobs, laws against self-defense, etc.

Philadelphia, Washington DC and Chicago have respectively lost 30, 25 and 20 percent of their populations since their peak. These cities were once highly desirable places to live - now only certain neighborhoods are.

[Sooth2222]

These are all Republican-run cities?

I knew it was all George Bush's fault!

[sig226]

I have two problems with this. First is Kennedy's assertion that nearly 700,000 convicts a year return home, some may be bringing prison culture with them. These people did not become thugs in prison. They were sent to prison because they were thugs.

This is also wrong: "The homicides occur in neighborhoods where folks don't finish high school," Mr. Owens (O'Dell Owens, Hamilton County, Ohio medical examiner) said. "If you can't make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn, you're done." This is a false cause and effect relationship. He's saying that people will not want to be thugs if they learn. But that implies that the action causes the volition. That's untrue. They wanted to be thugs and they learned how to be thugs. If they have no use for school, all the school in the world will only anger them. Volition causes action. Maybe the thugs don't want to educate themselves because they are thugs.

[jack_napier]

I’d love it if they would say where that young man’s altercation happened. As a DCite, I’d be able to discern the level of BS. Guess that’s too much to ask.

[blam]

It's a Black thang...I know I wouldn't understand.

[Poison Pill]

celebrating his appointment at a nightspot in an upscale part of the nation's capital

Upscale? I'd be curious to know the address.

[Brilliant]

“Maybe the problem is letting out some people who should be kept in jail...”

Exactly. The libs periodically get up on their high horse and rant about how we’ve got too many people in jail. They open the doors and let a lot of them out. Then this happens, and they scratch their heads trying to figure out why.

Another cause is all the illegal immigrants.

[Redbob]

"This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration..."

Twenty years that should have been 30, eh?

[The Duke]

"This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration,"

I knew they should have gone with the "impaling" plan.

[epow]

"This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration,"

So we shouldn't put murderers and other violent criminals in prison because they may come out worse than when they went in? How about executing them instead of keeping them locked up for a few years at taxpayer expense and then turning them loose so they can kill again? Dead criminals don't commit any more crimes after they assume room temperature.

[ClearCase_guy]

My position is that anything more than a 10 year sentence is foolish. If the crime is bad, execute the criminal. If the crime is not so bad, put them in jail for <10 years and see if they learn a lesson.

This story is one of the many reasons why I support wider use of the death penalty.

[gusopol3]

this is also known as the chickens coming home to roost. And to think, it all happened one night.

[libs_kma]

" There are the usual reasons -- the economy, poverty, gangs and crews, and the availability of firearms, but there is one that has been little explored: the migration of the prison culture back to the streets George Bush.

[EdReform]

BTTT

See also: PROVOCATIVE THOUGHT EXPERIMENT ON GUNS (What would Rev Wright say?)