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Democrats Prefer ‘Reforming’ the Criminal-Justice System to Punishing Criminals
National Review ^ | February 17, 2020 | Barry Latzer

Posted on 02/17/2020 3:58:33 AM PST by karpov

...

Reducing incarceration

Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders propose to reduce by 50 percent the number of people incarcerated in the United States at both the federal and state level. This would be quite the lift. If by “incarcerated” they mean every prison (as opposed to jail) inmate, they would have to persuade the states (responsible for 88 percent of 1.5 million prisoners) to reduce the sentences for some very serious crimes, eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, and maybe even sharply curtail the use of recidivism as a sentencing criterion.

Since over half of all state prisoners are in for murder, rape, robbery or assault, and another 14 percent were sentenced for burglary, major theft or fraud, public enthusiasm for leniency would be limited. The public will be even less enthusiastic when they come to understand that three out of four prison inmates are repeat offenders. Of course, there’s always the old left-wing standby of eliminating imprisonment for drug offenses, but drug possession accounts for only 3.5 percent of state prison populations. We’d have to free drug traffickers to downsize imprisonment a meaningful 11 percent.

If Buttigieg and Sanders were to include the jail population in their 50 percent solution (about 745,000 nationwide at any given point in time, but with very rapid and high turnover), they would have to find a way to reduce the number of arrests, perhaps by shrinking the size of police forces or curtailing arrests for quality-of-life offenses, such as aggressive panhandling or defacing public property. The most tempting option is bail reform by compelling local judges to release more defendants.

Bail reform

Bail reform is often billed as the antidote to discrimination against the poor, and Warren, Biden, and Sanders favor ending cash bail.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bail; buttigieg; sanders; stopandfrisk

1 posted on 02/17/2020 3:58:33 AM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

Make their laws useless.


2 posted on 02/17/2020 4:06:24 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: karpov

They have to make room for all the new political prisoners, don’t ya know. The “deplorables” must be .......modified.


3 posted on 02/17/2020 4:10:51 AM PST by Texas Patriot61 (Gun control is being able to hit your target.)
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To: karpov
Speaking of crime LOL.......


4 posted on 02/17/2020 4:26:47 AM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
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To: karpov

Freeing criminals and turning them loose on the street is not “reform”. It is abject surrender and an admission that the authors of this strategy have no idea how to carry out real reform.


5 posted on 02/17/2020 4:39:54 AM PST by alloysteel (Freedom is not a matter of life and death. It is much more serious than that..)
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To: karpov

No, they don’t want to reform it. They want to politicize it.

You agree with the Demonrat platform, you commit crimes and go free.

You don’t agree.....Maximum penalty for minor crimes. Like Roger Stone. Don’t have any crime...They will make one up. Then they will destroy your life, like Flynn.

They just want to punish their political enemies, anyone else is free to go.

Good thing we have a functional Feral Government, like the FBI, CIA, IRS, DOJ, State Department, EPA to ensure ‘Just US’ is served.

Sarcasm off. It’s not Justice, its actually called TYRANNY.


6 posted on 02/17/2020 4:48:45 AM PST by Pete Dovgan
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To: karpov

Reforming is no jails at all except for conservative political friends


7 posted on 02/17/2020 4:52:13 AM PST by ronnie raygun (nick dip .com)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Man, I was lukewarm on James Woods as an actor, but holy moley, as a political voice, I think the guy is pure gold!

He often says, with more wit and directness, nearly exactly what I am thinking when he skewers them!


8 posted on 02/17/2020 4:54:33 AM PST by rlmorel (Finding middle ground with tyranny or evil makes you either a tyrant or evil. Often both.)
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To: karpov

Here’s the deal. We used to try to rehabilitate criminals. Now we don’t. We lock them up and throw away the key. I personally believe in teaching criminals some kind of skill so they can get employed when they get out. And I personally believe in shortening sentences so we don’t have to pay to house, feed and medicate them for decades. If they are criminally insane, then they never get out. But otherwise, get them off drugs—my information is that inmates still have access to drugs in prison—so clean up the prison system from drugs, teach them a marketable skill, get them their GEDs and give them a second chance.


9 posted on 02/17/2020 4:55:53 AM PST by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: rlmorel

Oh he’s brilliant, he absolutely shreds the left with one sentence. Look at this one, on the possible Bloomberg/Hillary ticket..LOL LOL..

https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1228769226996871168

Twitter banned him for a year, I’d like to know how he got back on because I’m banned as well.


10 posted on 02/17/2020 5:05:44 AM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
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To: karpov

Dems want to let the criminals out of prison so they can prey on hard-working, productive people and take their money which is “rightfully” theirs.


11 posted on 02/17/2020 5:15:18 AM PST by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
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To: alloysteel

With a National Recidivism rate of 78 % who do they think is a candidate for rehab? Certain types are never rehab-able. Child Molesters are top of that food chain.


12 posted on 02/17/2020 5:42:09 AM PST by GailA (Intractable Pain, a Subset of Chronic pain Last a Life TIME at Level 10.)
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To: yldstrk

You’re right; rehabilitation isn’t even the goal anymore. In fact, they’ve become schools for career criminals. The prison system (like public education) has simply become a huge industry unto itself, and actually fixing things would cost too many people their livelihoods.

If we fixed our schools and actually fought a “war on drugs”, our prison system would be a fraction of its size.


13 posted on 02/17/2020 5:57:36 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: karpov

Democrats think too many people are being put in prison and that it needs to stop. Conservatives believe so many people are in prison because they commit so many crimes and need to be locked up.


14 posted on 02/17/2020 6:47:36 AM PST by Sans-Culotte (With every passing day, I am a little bit gladder that Romney lost in 2012.)
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