Why so many prisoners in the US??

[jahawkin]

Here's are great article about prisons in the US-
How We Got to Two Million
I find it crazy that the crime rate is near 1970's levels today, but the incarceration is four times what it was in 1970!!
Clearly, the politicians have all to gain by getting 'tough on crime'....but when is this going to stop??
Since 1980, spending for prisons has incresed by 189%, while spending on education has increased by 32%.
Anyone want to defend this??
Didn't Eisenhower say something to the effect of 'beware of the military-industrial complex'??
Well someone should step up and rid us of the prison-industrial complex that is here in the US.....
BTW....GWB wants to drop a billion on new federal prisons....:disgust:

 

[sandorski]

IMO, it is indefensable(sp).

 

[Moonbeam]

We know nothing and can therefore teach nothing to our children.

 

[thegreatjeff]

[Sarcastic Comment deleted]

 

[Anfield]

Too many prisons.

 

[amdforlife]

its truly boosh!t the amount of prisons in california. although i hate them, i have to admit they DO provide alot of jobs...although im sure a school could provide more..

 

[Anfield]

Same in Texas, except they fry so many folks here there's probably a few less. Anyway, I'm out, gotta get up in 3 or 4 hours. Good chatting with you folks.

 

[Czar]

The Economist: The USA with population 5% of the world population will by the end of the year 2001 have 25% of all the prisoners in the world.

 

[xaigi]

Why so many prisoners in the US??

Why so many prision-industry "donations" to politicians?

 

[Linflas]

I would be willing to bet that statistics would show that most of them are in there as the result of the so called War on Drugs.

 

[mackstann]

Linflas---thats what i was about to mention

i'd say get all of the drug addicts out of prison and into treatment programs.

get all of the beastiality convicts out too.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Another interesting fact is that convicted felons can no longer vote, not sure if I want them to or not, but they sure can't vote the lawmakers out of office after they've served their time

 

[amb#cog]

get all of the beastiality convicts out too.

WTF???

 

[IGBT]

It's do to the failure called "the war on drugs"..

 

[RDMustang1]

I'm not saying the legal system is great, but it does work to a point... Personally I think that most punishments are too light and jail time should increase for many crimes...

 

[rudder]

The real problem is that someone high on crack will steal to support their habit. They get busted, goto prison, and come out of prison in worse shape when they went in. There is no rehabilition for many of these people so its an endless cycle. I could care less if a murderer or child molester rots in prison without rehabilitation since they should never be set free.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

<< Another interesting fact is that convicted felons can no longer vote. >>



Actually they can vote in many state elections. The power to decide this issue has been left to the states, and several have elected (no pun intended) not to remove voting privileges from convicted felons.

I think the prison population in this country is shameful, and it is primarily because of the very high mandatory minimums for drug cases in state and federal courts (drug offenses, for example, constitute roughly 85% of all federal criminal cases) that were born during the War on Drugs that began under Reagan. This seems ridiculous to me, but few politicians have the huevos to suggest reducing the penalties for fear of not being re-elected.

I regard it as near-comical that, after nearly 20 years of the War on Drugs, cocaine is cheaper than it was at the start - it hardly seems to me like a good use of taxpayer funds to put so many non-violent drug offenders in prison for so long, given the results.

 

[iamwiz82]

<< It's do to the failure called &quot;the war on drugs&quot;.. >>




This is very true, as well as the US trying to &quot;rehabilitate&quot; criminals.

 

[BooneRebel]

<< I'm not saying the legal system is great, but it does work to a point... Personally I think that most punishments are too light and jail time should increase for many crimes... >>



Agreed. I think the crime rate is high because the risk is so low. The standard 'bad guy' can commit petty crime without any fear of retaliation. The risk of capture combined with the possibility of being 'let off' combined with the possibility of 'probation', combined with the possibility of being let off for good behavior before the sentence is complete, you do the math. It's &quot;Do the crime&quot;, &quot;5% chance of doing the time&quot;. And once you are in prison, you have a higher standard of living than people on the 'outside' living at a poverty level, can get a funded degree, or appeal until you're let out, etc. For years we've mocked the Mexican prisons for their poor treatment of prisoners, but let's face it: If you knew that if you committed a crime here that you could face that kind of treatment, would you be as likely to go through with it?

 

[hungrypete]

also bear in mind that the average prisoner costs the system about $20-25K a year. I say this: drop the war on drugs, put most of that money into treatment centers, the rest back into the education system. Release all non-violent drug offenders (people go to prison for possesion of small amounts of hard drugs) back into society, and require them to attend free counseling.

People of death row, child molesters, rapists, serial killers.... they are costing taxpayers as much as I make in a year busting my azz and contributing to society. For a few pennies you can place a bullet in each of thier heads. I personally find an electric chair to be more 'cruel and unusual' than for a soldier to kill them with a rifle, execution style.

Now we have a small number of people in prison for questionable murders and robberies, etc.

 

[BooneRebel]

That's something my Econ professor talked about. Basically, you have to decide if you want to have laws so lax that -no- innocent person is ever punished, in which case you also have to let guilty people away as well, or so strictly enforced that -some- innocent people are punished with the guilty. In the US we're kind of on the soft side of the balance, with some innocent being punished but a lot of guilty getting away as well.

If you go to a 'hardcore' execution-style punishment for all crimes, you have to take into account the fact that you will execute the occassional innocent person along with the guilty. Our society doesn't take to that idea very well.

 

[Dually]

drug laws.

 

[hungrypete]

<< If you go to a 'hardcore' execution-style punishment for all crimes, you have to take into account the fact that you will execute the occassional innocent person along with the guilty. Our society doesn't take to that idea very well. >>



I say Americans should push for a new capital punishment system. Why let them sit on death row for years? If you are sentenced to death, obviously the evidence was overwhelming and beyond reasonable doubt. That's when they should march them into the concrete room, and put them down.

Also, a vast majority of prisoners are there for relatively minor drug charges. This is a huge waste of tax money.

 

[xraymongral]

hungrypete<---Thats a good idea, but with the current state of corruption and general ineptness of most of the courts in our country, this is not currently a viable solution. How can we make it a viable solution?

First, we have to remove imunity from Judges.

Second, we have to hold Judges, prosecuters, lawyers, and police liable for there actions. If a judge/prosecuting attourny etc. with holds evidence, or there misconduct sends someone to prison, then the person that did the with holding/misconduct serves the same sentance that the defendent did, plus 5 years. If they are sentanced to death, then so is the perpetrator from the justice system. If the defendent is executed, so is the perpetrator from the justice system.

This forced honesty would go a long way towards assuring that innocents are not framed for the good press the PA or police department recieves, as well as getting some criminals off the bench, out of office.

Also, RICO laws should be held against the court system as well.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

<< If you are sentenced to death, obviously the evidence was overwhelming and beyond reasonable doubt. That's when they should march them into the concrete room, and put them down. >>



Ahem . . . the problem with this argument is that in many cases the evidence is by no means overwhelming, and, whether or not the jury feels there is reasonable doubt, an innocent defendant CAN be convicted and sentenced to death. Illinois alone has freed 13 men from death row in recent years after they were exonerated through evidence not available at the time of trial, and the abuses of some prosecutors in Illinois (some of the cases involved blatant prosecutorial misconduct) likely pale in comparison to the problems in those southern states that execute many more people (e.g., Texas, Florida, and Georgia).

I am a prosecutor and have nowhere near the faith in the criminal-justice system that you apparently do.