OMG, the federal prison population has grown 41%!

[friedpie]

Since 1995, the federal prison population has grown by 41%. <----- we all know this because the media loves to tell us this because they love to portray the us as racist.

In that same time frame the crime rate has gone down by 50%! <---- we don't know this because the liberal media wants us to believe in bogey men and racism.

From Lowell Ponte

"But do not expect Congress to roll back its new policies. Since 1995 the federal prison population has grown by 41 percent and ? surprise, surprise ? with these criminals off the streets the crime rate in the last decade has gone down by about 50 percent."

I have had mixed feelings about mandatory sentencing, due in part because no one in the media ever reported the dramatic drop in crime. My cousin and her husband went to jail for 3 years for selling cocaine. It was a mandatory sentence. I thought it was unfair because it was their first offense. After she got out of jail she was a new person and she was telling me about all the crap they were into, things like accepting stolen goods for drugs, etc.

 

[jahawkin]

Where the hell do they get the 50% reduction in crime since '95 figure?? I seriously doubt that figure.

oh ya:
"the liberal media wants us to believe in bogey men and racism."
Ya, Willy Horton was a liberal creation

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: jahawkin
Where the hell do they get the 50% reduction in crime since '95 figure?? I seriously doubt that figure.

oh ya:
"the liberal media wants us to believe in bogey men and racism."
Ya, Willy Horton was a liberal creation

Agreed, "crime" is a very vague moniker. Are they referring to drug-related crime, violent crime, white-collar crime?

 

[BaDaBooM]

Originally posted by: friedpie
I have had mixed feelings about mandatory sentencing, due in part because no one in the media ever reported the dramatic drop in crime. My cousin and her husband went to jail for 3 years for selling cocaine. It was a mandatory sentence. I thought it was unfair because it was their first offense.

In Thailand they would have been executed. I think it was fair. The US is very lax on drug crimes compared to other countries. That's why Thailand has no drug problem anymore and the US still does. Execution is too harsh, but it was cocaine after all, so I think 3 years is fair... Someone could argue about pot, but cocaine is extremely damaging.

 

[spaceman]

Originally posted by: BaDaBooM

Originally posted by: friedpie
I have had mixed feelings about mandatory sentencing, due in part because no one in the media ever reported the dramatic drop in crime. My cousin and her husband went to jail for 3 years for selling cocaine. It was a mandatory sentence. I thought it was unfair because it was their first offense.

In Thailand they would have been executed. I think it was fair. The US is very lax on drug crimes compared to other countries. That's why Thailand has no drug problem anymore and the US still does. Execution is too harsh, but it was cocaine after all, so I think 3 years is fair... Someone could argue about pot, but cocaine is extremely damaging.

3 years sounds about right for peddling cocaine.
i am all for reducing/abolishing drug laws related to pot, but i have seen 1st hand the dangers of cocaine, and worse...what things people will do to get it.

i have no sympathy for nose candy peddlers.

 

[friedpie]

Originally posted by: jahawkin
Where the hell do they get the 50% reduction in crime since '95 figure?? I seriously doubt that figure.

It didn't say 50% reduction in crime since 1995. It said a nearly 50% reduction in crime the past decade. I'm sure you can do some googling to confirm it. Almost everyone knows the '90s saw a great reduction in crime, especially in big cities like New York. Ask the people there what they think of Guiliani's reducing crime there.

p.s. just looking over the DOJ's website I see that the violent crime rate in 1991 was 48.8 per 1,000 persons, while in 2001 it was 24.7 per 1,000. Hmm, that's about a 50% reduction in violent crime. I'm sure upon further review other crime categories will show a similar reduction.

Satisfied?

oh ya:
"the liberal media wants us to believe in bogey men and racism."
Ya, Willy Horton was a liberal creation

Black neighborhoods welcome the police, but the media only glorifies the rare instances where a white cop abuses a black person, and many times that's not even the case (see the Cincinnati riots in 2001), it's the media's spin and the spin of race hustlers like Jesse Jackson. They glorify and legitimize rioting, and promote the notion that the nation is policed by racist cops. They portray the black community as one that is victim to racist cops when in reality the black community is the victim of black criminals. They never show those victims that welcome cops in their crime-ridden neighborhoods. They show white cops beating up a black suspect but they never mention predominately black police forces like the one in DC where a cop is 6 times more likely to shoot a civilian than in NYC. That's the kind of boogey man and race baiting I was talking about. Feel free to disagree.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Actually the factor which correlates best with year over year crime rates is typically the state of the economy. For instance, over the past 2 1/2 yrs the economy has been in the pooper while crime statistics have fluctuated . . . some offenses increased while other offenses decreased. Regardless, the above is still correlation not causation.

In truth, felons are released on a regular basis (and commit new crimes) while the juvenile justice/criminal justice system continues to cultivate new repeat offenders.

 

[IGBT]

There in their because they did it...

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Well yeah . . . that goes without saying. But the penal code and enforcement have not made America safer per se and we all no the system respects money. OJ and Jayson Williams are guilty as the day is long but they both got off b/c they had mad cash and the cops were a little sloppy. But it doesn't matter b/c these two guys aren't really dangerous to the typical person. Males (and an escalating number of females) age 16-35 without proper education, guidance, and/or opportunities for personal improvement will always be susceptible to easy money. If you follow the liberal media one would believe these people are all black or Hispanic

. Then again if you followed many perp walks over the past 18 months the most significant threats to American safety wear Brooks Brothers.