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Possession of a stolen weapon for instance, federal crime because the gun was originally manufactured in texas sold legally to someone in montana,stolen,then bought by someone i know from a guy he worked with. yes stupid not to research before you buy. the guy had no record. charged, hustled through the federal court system with a public offender,advised to plea or risk ten years in prison.took the plea deal which was 4-16 months depending on the judge.BAM! 16 months in federal prison 3 years federal probation and marked for life. Now try to get a job, apartment, good luck...felon with a gun charge...besides spending 16 months with hardened criminals. Our system is flawed.If there is violence, lock em up. But come on
That's right, I've said many times that if you catch a prison term in the US you might as well get felon branded on your forehead because your life will never be the same. It shouldn't be like that. For a non-violent crime, at the very least your record should be sealed if you don't get rearrested within 5 years.
I got a son who is a prison guard in a supermax. Trust me, for he most part, they all belong. .
You won't get an argument from me there, but the prison population of a supermax is the worst of the worst. And it's really unlikely that there any people in a supermax who don't belong there. But that is not representative of the majority of people in prison in the US. California has prisoners who are such a low risk that they live in fire camps, any time they wanted to walk away they could. If they can be trusted to do that, why not send them home and assign them to a job so that they can repay society for their crime? Shouldn't prison be for the people we are afraid of rather than the ones who just make us angry?
I think you'll find that I'm your ally in this debate, but your post lacks clarity and credibility. We have the largest prison population in the world, and this is a sign of our failure as a nation. Back in the 50s and 60s, it was said that the US was so much better because the Soviets threw all the people they didn't like into jail. But hey, the US is basically the new USSR, from the mass surveillance to authoritarian single party government (it pretends to be a two party state; and we're more in line with fascism than communism).
And I agree, something needs to be done about that, but you aren't going to win over the skeptics (some of whom are too close minded, which is a nice way of saying stupid, to have their opinion changed; it is what it is) with posts like this.
And our system is doing that effectively? Our recidivism rate is ~50%. Clearly US prisons do not meet your criteria and you would want them to be reformed to lower recidivism and turn out people who no longer have any desire to commit crimes?
The main reason why we have so much violent crime is not because we lock people in prison, but because we let them out. Prison is crime university, where criminals go to become hardened. Sending them there for a few years is how we express our stupidity as a society. That stupidity is so overwhelming that it needs an outlet for expression. We need to do the stupidest things we possibly can. Sending people to prison, then letting them out when they're hardened criminals, fills that bill perfectly.
Dungeons with dark single occupant cages work and don't lean to fraternization.
Yeah. I never understood the logic of giving these guys access to weight lifting facilities in prison. I'd prefer instead that we castrate the more violent prisoners.
There is no weight lifting equipment in California prisons and there hasn't been any since 1994
Another 10% did what they did to GET dope or about dope debts, "turf', etc, cause dope costs 100x what it would cost if it's legal.
Apparently you have not been to Denver.
Legal marijuana is running $40 an eighth before taxes ($53 after taxes).
In comparison, street prices for similar quality in Colorado are around $30 an eighth (even less for lower quality). I highly doubt legal marijuana is ever going to get under $50/ounce, much less the $3/ounce that you are suggesting it would cost.
65% are there for dope. Another 10% did what they did to GET dope or about dope debts, "turf', etc, cause dope costs 100x what it would cost if it's legal. Portugal has NO dope laws, hasn't had any for a decade and they are ok. We were ok before the 1914 dope laws, too. another 5% of prisoners are in prison for gambing, prostitution, guns, etc, no harm done to anyone. Stop locking them up and you'll have 4x as much room for the people who DO steal or harm others.
Around 60% of the US prison population are serving time for non-violent offenses, this is from 2012 but that number hasn't varied much for several years. In California around 50% of offenders are incarcerated for non-violent crimes. Non-violent would include drug possession, theft, embezzlement, fraud etc.
And as is, I already think what you said is complete crap. A murderer can actually still be a murderer even if you chop their nuts off. In fact, a rapist can still be a rapist without genitals. The logistics change but without any behavioral modification, castration wouldn't do any good.
Besides, castration is barbaric. We should be moving away from that, not back toward it.
It depends what the purpose of prison is. We tend to conflate them all and then debate from tangential perspectives. Valid purposes could be:
1) Punishment: to make offenders suffer for a bad behavior. You did wrong, you must pay.
2) Deterrence: to discourage others from doing it. We want them to think twice about emulating you.
3) Rehabilitation: correcting their conduct so they won't repeat bad behaviors. You can have a life someday.
4) Segregation: removing them from society so they can't do it again. Don't care about fixing you, don't care about punishing you, you just need to be kept apart.
We tend to differ on what the goal(s) should be, and I'd say that sensible people realize that different goals might need to apply to different offenders. What is clear is that in our prison system, on balance, it seems to be mostly punishment and segregation, with rehabilitation a lower priority. I think deterrence is a theoretical goal, but doesn't seem too effective. But it would help if we had the ability to decide on the goal of an individual's confinement, and focus efforts on it.
#3 does not apply in today's world of idiocy. How do you rehab an idiot with no regard for anything but one's own wants and desires....to the point they will rob, steal, cheat or kill for it?
#1 would apply if the punishment was something like breaking rocks in the hot sun, working a road crew or repairing train tracks.
#2 Would apply if the death penalty was reinstated and followed through in the states which did away with it. It was the bleeding heart liberal thing to do.
#4 Some people needn't see society for the rest of their lives.
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