• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Trading Liberty for Security

C

chrisms

Diamond Member
Benjamin Franklin summed up the founding idea of America best when he said "Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security." At a time when this nation has the highest prison population in the world, the United States should follow those words. We have become so paranoid about crime that we have locked up too many people for too long of a time, often unfairly and because of racial prejudice.

America is referred to as the "land of the free," but a look at the facts proves that nickname to be misleading. With approximately 285 million people living in the U.S., we make up 5% of the world's total population. Yet due to harsh drug laws and racist law enforcement, this country holds 23% of the global prison population, according to a report by England's Home Office Department. We not only lead in our sheer number of inmates, but our 686 prisoners per 100,000 citizens ratio is the highest on earth.

According the the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people currently in the nation's corrections system exceeds the number of people in Wyoming, North Dakota, Vermont, Alaska, Delaware, South Dakota, Montana, and Maine combined. For a country which prides itself in setting the global standard for personal freedom, it is appalling that our government considers the equivalent of 16% of our states as criminals.

With so many people in jail, one would expect that there is a crime epidemic in this country. According to the FBI, however, the national crime rate dropped each year for total of 12%, between 1995 and 2002, with a preliminary report suggesting that crime rates dropped again significantly in 2003. Compared to other countries, the U.S. does not have reason to panic over crime. An Interpol publication claims our nation's crime rate is about 40% lower than France, and 58% lower than that of England.

Some would argue that our low crime rates can be attributed to our high amount of inmates, and that the judicial system is working. However, the FBI also reports that while crime rates have doubled since 1960, our incarceration rate has increased 300%. The large difference in these statistics suggests that the increase in inmates is not helping to solve crime problems across the country.

Not only is our prison population too high, it is ethnically unequal and proves that the judicial system is racist. In 1994, the nation's population was 13% black. The percentage jumps to 46% when we look at the state and federal prison system population that same year, with 1 in 4 black men aged 20-29 being in prison. (Littman 350) While it's easy to explain this uneven incarceration rate by saying black people simply commit more crimes, an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report, backed by evidence from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, claimed that in 2001, while 13% of those who admitted to monthly drug use were black, blacks made up a staggering 74% of those sent to prison for drug possession. In an fair system, these percentages should be about equal.

The drug war is the major reason for our high imprisonment rates. Nonviolent offenders are two thirds of the prison population, many of them incarcerated for drug crimes. Sending a drug addict to a federal or state penitentiary costs $25,900 per year while giving him or her treatment can cost as little as $4400 annually (ACLU). Treating an addict's serious mental disorders, which 1 in 3 of them have, is important according to Charles Curie, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Curie claims that "if these inmates recover from the disorders, they're unlikely to repeat crimes" (qtd. in Elias). This means less repeat offenders and help for those who need it, yet the government insists on simply throwing addicts in prison at a higher cost to the taxpayer.

Harsh sentencing, brought on in large part by the drug war's mandatory minimum sentences and unfair punishments, is another reason for our overcrowded prisons. In 1975, an average drug offender would spend about 3 1/2 years in jail. This number increases nearly every year up to 1995, when drug convictions carried a 7 1/2 year sentence on average (Littman 349).

Regardless of whether the drug problem in America should be solved as a law enforcement or a public health issue, it is clear that the punishments involved with drug crimes are unjust. A report by the California Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (CA NORML) tells the story of Bryan Epis, a man who learned the hard way that sentencing has become too harsh. After a voter-approved law in the state allowed marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, Epis started a crop of 458 plants for him and his patients after being given permission by Judge David Garcia. As a father of an 8-year-old girl and having no prior criminal convictions, he was arrested in June 1997 and sentenced to a mandatory minimum 10 years in prison. At his trial in federal court, his attorney was restricted from discussing the state's medical marijuana laws or that Epis was growing for his patients. Using the ACLU's statistics, we can estimate that the Epis case will cost taxpayers $259,000 in prison fees alone.

The United States judicial system is in dire need of change. With a ridiculous number of Americans in prison, it is becoming increasingly clear that the problem is not soaring crime rates, but lengthy sentences and fruitless laws. Our desire to keep the streets safe has reached a point where we are, as Benjamin Franklin warned against, sacrificing liberty for security.
Click to expand...
 
Another nail in the coffin of, " our low crime rates can be attributed to our high amount of inmates, ..." is the fact that Crime rates are also falling in Canada despite not dramatically increasing Prison Populations.
 
One of my favorite pieces from Badnarik's website.

On a fundamental level, Libertarians believe that it is the unalienable and constitutional right of individuals to medicate themselves and choose for themselves what to put into their bodies, as long as they live up to the consequences of their actions. The federal government has no proper say in the matter, and state governments violate the rights of the people in their own attempts to enforce morality. The decision to ingest, smoke or consume any drug should be up to the individual, under the advice of his or her physician, when appropriate. Locking people up for trying to relieve their pain is cruel and unusual punishment for an act that hurts no one.

The Drug War has led to some of the worst violations of the constitutional liberties of Americans, as well as to the worst wave of violent crime in American history since Alcohol Prohibition. It has been used to rationalize unlawful searches and seizures, corruption of the court system, no-knock raids, racial profiling, and "civil asset forfeiture"?a policy whereby government officials can confiscate private property without even charging anyone with a crime. The War on Drugs, more than anything else, has served as a means of destroying the Bill of Rights. It has also led to excessive taxes and spending, costing more than 40 billion dollars a year to arrest, prosecute and imprison non-violent drug offenders.

Drug Prohibition has caused gang warfare and other violent crime by raising the prices of drugs so much that vicious criminals enter the market to make astronomical profits, and addicts rob and steal to get money to pay the inflated prices for their drugs. On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the over-crowding in prison caused by the Drug War. While violent criminals can usually have their sentences reduced, drug offenders are subject to "mandatory minimums," which strip away judicial discretion and force judges to put users and dealers in prison for decades. This has to stop.

The Drug War also has funded terrorists; providing them with opportunities for enormous profits, and even by giving foreign aid to such regimes as the Taliban as long as they promised to have "tough drug" policies.

The Drug War does not curb demand, it barely reduces supply, however it makes America much more dangerous and much less free.

A Libertarian president would order federal officials to cease and desist in harassing medical marijuana patients and would block federal spending on the War on Drugs. Nonviolent drug offenders would be released from federal prison, and each state would choose its own drug policy, just as each chose its own alcohol policy when alcohol Prohibition was repealed. Libertarians would hope and expect most states to come around and severely reform their policies to make them more humane and less at odds with the Constitution and the American way of life.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top