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Starting in reverse order...

The last one I sort of agree with. There are too many things that are illegal. The whole war on drugs thing has turned out to be a ridiculous, counterproductive waste of resources (but this is a whole other thread). There are others. So, yes, what does constitute a felony need review.

I set a threshold at felony. No I wouldn't keep people in prison forever just for a felony, but one they get out they go on a pretty tight leash, it may get looser over time, but it may never completely go away. I might make all felonies have a "to life" sentance. Someone could get 6 month to life for a minor felony. If you continue to be a screw up in prison, you just stay there. If you get out and commit another crime, your immediately back in, and aren't eligible for release for twice the minimum for your original crime, plus the minimum for the new crime. Yes, they'd be behind the 8-ball when they get out, but they put themselves there, so they just have to deal with it.

There was a time where rehabilitation was en vogue in this county. It was back when I was a younger (70s maybe early 80's or before.) It just never seemed to work. There was high recidivism, and the ex-cons always presented a major threat to society. It became a revolving door, and people got sick of it, and basically gave up on the concept, this is when things like the California three strikes law happened. I don't think anyone has ever shown that rehabilitation can systemically work. Maybe in some cases it can, but on what percentage can it fail before we just shouldn't take the chance.

Let me be direct. There are a large number of people passing through the prison system, that just need to be permanently eliminated from society. Not only are they of no benefit to society, they're a serious detriment to it. They can't be rehabilitated. A lot of them are some combination of too violent, drug addled, or just sociopathic to ever really function well out of prison. So either they need to stay there, or we need another more permanent way of dealing with them.

Originally Posted by EA

So what is the purpose of prison? It's supposed to be about rehab. Obviously it's not, but it's supposed to be.
So if we're churning out people you can't trust, who then go on to try and life a normal life upon release, but can't, and have to resort to crime, maybe we ought to change how our prisons work.
We have countries like the Netherlands shutting prisons down due to a lack of criminals. And they actually rehab people there.

Ever see someone that's been in prison? They're never right again. It changes people for the worse. It's supposed to be a punishment and rehabilitation so they can be productive citizens when released.

Under your rule, you might as well keep all inmates in prison forever no matter how small their offense.

And let's not forget that the typical person commits 3 felonies a day here. We have so many asinine laws it's not hard to break them just living your life.
We have the largest prison population on earth. We're doing something wrong.

[Tek_Freek]

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