U.S. Prison Population Surpasses 2 Million

Reuters via Lycos.com ^ | 04/06/2003 | James Vicini

[jd777]

You're right. And we have to pay to keep these drug offenders in jail. What is it, $30,000 a year per prisoner?

[mikenola]

Is it immoral for a college kid to a light up a joint? If it affects only himself, then the only problem is it harms him physically. Along that argument, we could lump in alcohol , cigarettes, and BigMacs .

(Forgive me, I'm a newbie to the FR drug debates...)

[RipSawyer]

The U.S. Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, later a Justice of the US Supreme Court, delivered a speech in 1940 in which he said:

"With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some sort on the part of almost anyone," declared Jackson, who later became a Supreme Court justice. "In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who committed it, it is a question of picking the man, and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him."


Exactly, and you cannot imagine how much more this statement is justified today than when Mr. Jackson said it in 1940. When I was just a boy watching the Art Linkletter show "People are Funny" there was one episode in which Linkletter sent a man from the audience out into the street and told him that if he could spend the rest of the show outside the studio and not violate any laws that he would be given one hundred dollars at the end of the show. That was a large sum in those days but the man did not get the money. At the conclusion of the show he came back in and the cameraman who had followed him gave an account of everything the man had done. He had opened a pack of cigarettes while standing on the street and had failed to break the tax stamp at the top of the pack which was a violation of law in those days. Now, it is extremely doubtful that anyone was ever arrested for not breaking that stamp but it does illustrate what Mr. Jackson meant.

[MrLeRoy]

Is it immoral for a college kid to a light up a joint? If it affects only himself, then the only problem is it harms him physically. Along that argument, we could lump in alcohol , cigarettes, and BigMacs .

(Forgive me, I'm a newbie to the FR drug debates...)

Nonetheless, you've hit the nail on the head. If you keep reading the drug threads (see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/involved?group=124), you won't see your arguments rationally refuted.

[biblewonk]

Lets just hope none of them are there for having a joint.

[MrLeRoy]

Sadly, I'm sure many are.

[biblewonk]

1 of 8 black males is in prison!!!

[newgeezer]

1 of 8 black males is in prison!!!

Yes, 12% of all black males in their twenties and early thirties is in prison.

No wonder the Dems are calling for felons' suffrage.

[TFMcGuire]

Right!

Wish more of them would do it! ;)

[TFMcGuire]

Love it!

[Joe_October]

.... What percentage of the population would you like to have in prison ? ....

Too easy. 100% of the people that break the law and are convicted by a jury of their peers to serve time.

See the slope where you pass laws that you don't plan to enforce is equally slippery.

Drug offenses and violent crimes are against the law. If you don't like the law, contact your legislature. If you break the law, don't cry if they put you in jail.

Drug offenders break the law because they do a calculation that the risk and cost of being caught is less than the penalty. Increase the risk and the calculation will change.

Slippery slope doesn't fly in this case.

[SSN558]

"Slippery slope doesn't fly in this case."

Ok so you believe the rule of law is something more than a bad joke. That's fair. Instead of picking on the weak and locking them in cages why not do something that would make a difference like arresting Bill Clinton and shutting down the Mexican border ?

[Joe_October]

The rule of law is not an old and tired cliche. It's about applying the law fairly.

I would cheer loudly if they locked Clinton up fairly. But, as a trained lawyer, he would be hard to catch. Sorry, that's the system.

In regards to locking up the weak, why don't we just tell them if the break the law they will REALLY be locked up, instead of letting them think, MAYBE they might get away with it. Not all of the weak use drugs. Some are not so weak.

Laws are passed to protect society. If you break them, you should be punished. If you don't like a law, petition to change it.

I'm not clear on why they don't send ILLEGAL aliens back. It makes no sense. But, I don't want the government to debate, I want them to execute the law. When there are too many rules, they should get rid of some of them. I don't want them selectively enforcing laws. It's too slippery.