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That's horrible. What does that tell society about priorities?!
For instance I think violent crimes should always be punished harder than material crimes. I fact, I think nobody should go to jail for crimes other than violent crimes.
As opposed to too harsh or fair.This is something that is constantly repeated by many people in many countries.
I suppose one aspect is that there really is no "justice". In cases of theft and burglary, a financial compensation can sort things out but with murder that destroys a family, rape that leaves someone emotionally scarred and pregnant or an assault that leaves someone facially disfigured, no amount of money can relieve the trauma so when someone gets off with 10 years people believe the criminal should be killed/left to rot.
There's also the idea that prison is too soft but from the friends I talk to, prison ain't soft. It may be better than the hellholes in South America/SE Asia but it's terrifying. A "dog eat dog" world and if you show any signs of weakness, people will pick on you.
Thats interesting, from what Ive seen and heard, US prisons are MUCH more inhumane and cruel, compared to foreign prisons, such as Eastern Europe, even Mexico.
One example of this, is visiting day at the prisons, I watched a great documentary on this one Mexican prison, they have 1000s of people line up for visiting day, and the warden said they do their best in searching everyone before they come in, but its just not realistic they can search everyone (in US jails if this was a problem, they would just shut down the visits until they could get control), Once inside the prison in Mexico, visitors could pretty much go anywhere they liked, even into the cell areas, physical contact is allowed, some have sex of course, gifts are common as well ( in the US prisons, many do not even allow physical contact and its all done over video screens, and they surely are not allowed into the cell areas, visitors are very restricted in where they can go while there).
But that doesn't mean prison is a good place though? I suspect for the Average American saying that, they would crap their pants if they ever had to spend a few months in prison. Especially people who've never fought in their life.
And unless you want an incredibly difficult life of finding decent jobs, housing, a record sucks big time.
I wouldn't want to be in jail, that's why I make sure I don't commit crimes. It's a pretty simple formula.
Commit crimes = End up in jail
Don't commit crimes = enjoy your freedom
Repeat offenders are proof of a failing justice system that allows criminals back into the public when they still are not fit to be in public. Obviously, something should be done about that
That's horrible. What does that tell society about priorities?!
For instance I think violent crimes should always be punished harder than material crimes. I fact, I think nobody should go to jail for crimes other than violent crimes.
So much of criminal justice is based on the local jurisdiction.
I got busted for a high BAC, no accident, no injury DUI back in 2017, in a rural TN county that has a "tough on crime" reputation. I thought I was royally screwed. On paper, TN DUI penalties are very harsh.
The reality of the situation was that that specific county had so much serious violent crime on the docket that small time pot/DUI offenders basically got off with zero jail time, lower level charges, and max level fines. They wrung me out, but I copped a plea for a reckless endangerment charge, which is a nonmoving and expungable offense in TN, and my insurance was never raised. I blew over a .20 an hour after leaving the bar.
If I had been busted in Arizona, on paper, it would have been thirty days in lockup.
That's horrible. What does that tell society about priorities?!
For instance I think violent crimes should always be punished harder than material crimes. I fact, I think nobody should go to jail for crimes other than violent crimes.
I disagree! Ever heard it? Passive Aggressive behavior brings out the anger and violence in others. Release them because they were non-violent? More thought needs to be put into this. Bernie Madoff stole millions from his clients, and, as a result of it, did any of them commit suicide, and if so, where's the murder charge. And no, he wasn't violent!
It's no secret that jail/prison sentences are 2-3X higher in the U.S. than Europe, and is Europe any more dangerous as a result of it?
And the smartest criminals will never be caught, you'll never see them in a court room, never read about them in a True Crime book. If only 65% of murders are solved, nationwide, what does that tell you?
And as far as murder, it's something I never stop thinking about: When there's a murder there's generally 2 sets of fingerprints on the murder weapon. This would apply more to husband/wife killings.
I don't think the criminal justice system is too lax at all.
Because those people tend to confuse 'justice' ...with vengeance (eg: capital punishment).
That is definitely part of it. Those people - and there are indeed plenty of them - are more interested in feeling good than actually seeing results: crime deterred and prevented.
And, in part, they're low-information. These are people who get their information from television and the talking heads therein. They're glued to cable news, which has to fill 24 hours everyday with something, so they splash lurid headlines of 'carnage'. And to an extent, some infotainment (that they sadly see as 'news') have a vested interest in falsely portraying this as 'worse than ever'. They're oblivious to the fact that violent crime is significantly lower in the 21st century than it was during all of the 1970s thru the 1990s. That's not anecdotal: it is abundantly documented by both state governments as well as the FBI. They actually think that we're immersed in record levels of crime. Why? Because their only source of information is the hysteria being shouted out of the idiot box.
Another component of their ignorance is that they are unaware of the fact that severe punishment and lower crime rates simply do not correlate. The lowest incarceration rates in the United States are in the Northeast and the upper Midwest. These states also have among the lowest violent crime rates. Which part of the United States has the highest violent crime rates? The South, and it's not even close. Know what else is not even close? The rate at which the South incarcerates its populace. Capital punishment? Same thing. It's abolished entirely in the Northeast and most of the Upper Midwest (excluding South Dakota), whereas in the South it is practiced enthusiastically. They possess the child-like idea that if we just 'punish the bad guys harder', then the bad guys will start being good.
In sum, most people don't even understand the actual facts of crime and punishment, nor the effective methodologies. Of those that do, many prefer the warm fuzzies of vengeance to actually making society safer.
America has the highest incarceration rate in the world yet our crime rate is still very high. So all this incarceration is not having the intended effect. I don't think it is because our prisons are too soft, but rather social-economic factors, drugs in particular, that are the reason for this.
I have no idea what the solution is but I really doubt that more prisons is the answer since we have tried that for 30 years with no great success. We need to try something else. But not legalize drugs either, that would just create millions of zombies which we don't need either.
Like nearly every other problem we have in the US...
the common denominator is the far too high number of people especially so at the no/low skilled end of the spectrum.
I wouldn't want to be in jail, that's why I make sure I don't commit crimes. It's a pretty simple formula.
Commit crimes = End up in jail
Don't commit crimes = enjoy your freedom
Repeat offenders are proof of a failing justice system that allows criminals back into the public when they still are not fit to be in public. Obviously, something should be done about that
And yet, through a small human error, any of us could end up jail/prison, you included.
"The sun was in my eyes, I didn't see the person crossing in a crosswalk, or it was pitch dark, and I didn't see the pedestrian in the crosswalk until it was too late!"
And what's the charge of this? Remember you killed someone! Involuntary manslaughter?
I find that most people are completely oblivious to the costs of imprisonment, some $40k-$50k a year per inmate, and if more people thought it out, how we could spend that money more usefully, at least those with vengeance in their blood, would think differently. And in some states, if someone was wrongfully convicted, there's even more costs to consider, how much they pay this person who was wrongfully convicted.
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