posted on June 1, 2003 12:15:47 PM new
The U.S. is now number one worldwide in the percentage of jailed citizens with a ratio of 702 per 100,000, recently surpassing Russia with a ratio of 665 per 100,000. The U.S. now has a 3X higher ratio than such authoritarian countries as Iran. A major cause is greatly increased drug arrests, which numbered 40,000 in 1980 and now numbers 450,000.
posted on June 1, 2003 01:30:16 PM new
can't wait till the war on terror is going as well as the war on drugs..
If you can't answer a man's argument, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.
- Elbert Hubbard
posted on June 1, 2003 01:44:05 PM new
Question: What would the true unemployment rate be if the prison population decreased as well as the prison industry employment numbers (guards, contractors, purveyors etc.). Which division of Haliburton profits off this misery.
Note to the right wing zealots, check your facts before responding.
posted on June 1, 2003 02:53:51 PM new
CBlev- I am well aware of Halliburton/Cheney etc., but your link sheds no light on davebraun's reference to a connection to the prison population.
posted on June 1, 2003 03:19:57 PM new
Misery? What misery? just because Halliburton KBR helps build prisons is not a conspiracy you seem to be alluding to...
How about you doing some homework before posting your usual BS
Stusi, davebraun is so full of sh*t his eyes must be brown.... pay little attention other than to laugh now and then...
AIN'T LIFE GRAND...
[ edited by Twelvepole on Jun 1, 2003 03:21 PM ]
You can be sooooo mean sometimes - comment made all in fun.
abayauctionguy
I hope they incarcerate the people who broke into our home and stole a computer! They stole some other things too but why did they have to take the computer???? Jokes on them. They took the one that had most of its insides taken out and a monitor that no longer worked. Ha, ha. Bet they didn't get any money out of that one.
Cheryl
My religion is simple, my religion is kindness.
--Dalai Llama
posted on June 1, 2003 03:52:23 PM new
Misery? What misery? just because Halliburton KBR helps build prisons is not a conspiracy you seem to be alluding to... the right wing idiot replies.
And you are correct I am laughing...at you
(2nd time you used that line in the past week, before that I hadn't heard it in many years since the 2nd grade).
Stusi, davebraun is so full of sh*t his eyes must be brown.... pay little attention other than to laugh now and then...
posted on June 1, 2003 04:28:47 PM new
I was unaware that a division of Halliburton built prisons, but as much as I am not a fan of Cheney's, I would think it a far stretch to think that he is influencing Ashcroft to fill them.
posted on June 1, 2003 05:20:45 PM new
On the contrary, over 500 days since the breaking of the Enron scandal and not one conviction amounting to jail time for anyone involved.
posted on June 1, 2003 07:23:22 PM new
Along with drug related arrests that you mentioned, another reason for an increasing prison population is the "three strikes you're out" policy. This adds 25 years to a criminals sentence... to the delight of prison industry corporations...a 50 million dollar industry!
As of June 30, 2.1 million people were locked up in prisons or jails, an increase of 2.8 percent from the year before. The majority are non violent criminals convicted of drug related crimes.
The same trend of an escalating prison population is affecting Great Brittain
posted on June 1, 2003 07:38:37 PM new
You know there are many countries that do not have "drug" related convicts, maybe we should try their system to decrease the prison populations seeing how some of you lefters are so worried about this...
Such as these countries...Malaysia, Pakistan,Turkey, Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia...
posted on June 1, 2003 09:54:46 PM new
Yeah, we know, twelvepole, those countries don't have convicts because simple possession will get a mandatory death sentence.It would be interesting to know how much US pressure caused those countries to enact those laws, seeing as how some of them are the source of drugs headed to the US.The way drug users are treated in this country is an issue which spans the political spectrum. There are conservatives, liberals, and moderates who believe that simple drug possession should not send a person to hard time. It's hardly a "lefters" issue anymore.
It is a racial one though. While those who admit to buying and using drugs are mainly white, the great majority of those in jail for that usage are black and hispanic.
The "drug war" is an obscene waste of tax payer dollars and is a monumental failure. IMO anyone convicted of non-violent, otherwise victimless possession of personal quantities of ANY drug should be let out of jail. There are other alternatives to incarceration. I am not interested in my tax dollars being flushed to provide punishment for someone who made a lifestyle choice, however dumb it may be.
If you can't answer a man's argument, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.
- Elbert Hubbard
posted on June 2, 2003 04:53:23 AM new
I have to wonder how many of those sitting in prison are innocent. I don't mean that claim to be innocent, but are really innocent. I wonder, too, how some people can get a fair trial. A "jury of your peers" doesn't always seem to be the case. A poor black man doesn't get a jury of his peers. Since when are middle class white males his peers? I'm by no means an expert at this, but how many unemployed black suspects have unemployed black people as jurers? Maybe jury of your peers is subjective.
IMO drugs do play a large part in the increase of people in prison. But, as the economy worsens, I think you'll see more and more. Desperate people take desperate measures. For drug addicts, I'm a think forced rehab in lieu of a prison term is a better option. Not rehab for six months. But, maybe a term equivalent to their jail term. Dealers deserve prison, they are in another class altogether.
Maybe instead of concentrating on numbers, the powers that be should be looking into the reason(s) our prison system is so overloaded and try to fix the problem. It's all well and good to lock them up, but the problem will still be there if and when they get out.
I do think it interesting that some races commit more of a particular crime than another. For instance, from what I read and watch it seems more white men murder their wives instead of divorcing them while a black man is more likely to just leave. More white men commit the act of violent rape resulting in murder using a knife or other sharp object. A black man is more likely to hold up a convenient store using a gun. They are more likely to kill another black than a white. There have been several cases in our area where an Arabic male is more likely to commit crimes using explosives for insurance fraud. I have to wonder why it is that the crimes commited by a black man or woman get more publicity than those of their white or hispanic counterparts? How crappy is that? I'm white and live in a hillbillyish neighborhood. Anytime a black family moves into this neighborhood, all I hear are complaints about how our crime rate is going to increase. Give me a break.
Cheryl
My religion is simple, my religion is kindness.
--Dalai Llama
posted on June 2, 2003 07:11:15 AM new
Okay, I said it to reflect what the media portrays. How many black men make the news for murdering their wives? Oh wait, it isn't the husbands at all, it's a cult gone mad scouring the countryside for wives to murder. Geesh, wouldn't divorce be much easier? Doesn't anyone watch Divorce Court anymore?
My point was actually aimed at how the media seems to portray one race one way and another yet another way. Even in this day and age, far too many people take what the media says as gospel truth. For example, when watching the nightly news it seems more black men beat their children to death than white men. That's probably not the case, but you'd never know it by listening to the evening news. How many times (be honest now) have you heard about a crime on network news and before the story is even on say to yourself, "Bet he was black."? I'm sure a lot more people do than are willing to admuit. So, how many black men are sitting in prison and their only crime was being black? We'll never know the answer to that one because of course almost all prisoners say they are innocent.
And before anyone blasts me for saying "black" instead of African American, a good friend of mine is black and he is offended when called African American. He is Jamaican on his father's side and French on his mother's. No African anywhere in his blood line. He often says, "Just because you are black does not mean you have an African heritage. Just as being white does not mean you have a Nordic heritage. I am an American."
So, it is not used in respect for him.
Cheryl
My religion is simple, my religion is kindness.
--Dalai Llama
[ edited by CBlev65252 on Jun 2, 2003 07:16 AM ]
Are you telling us that the media does not present an even-handed deliniation of the "news".
Next you will be telling us there is no Santa Claus, God didn't make little green apples, and Saddam does not have hundreds of tons of WMD and does not pose an [i]immediate[/] threat to the entire world.
[ edited by Twelvepole on Jun 1, 2003 03:21 PM ]