<b>Feature: Drug War Prisoner Count Over Half a Million, US Prison Population at All-Time High</b>

Drug War Chronicle ^ | 10/28/05

[JTN]

ping

[NapkinUser]

What's with the "b" symbols? Trying to bold the headline when you can't?

[muawiyah]

Those guys in the Sentencing Project are totally crazy.

Looks like we aren't done locking up the bad guys.

[headsonpikes]

We're seeing the emergence of a new ethnic group - Incarcero-Americans!

They already outnumber Native Americans. Isn't that special!

[twas]

And the point of this is what? That we need more prisons?

[kingu]

Interesting numbers - I want to see the numbers in relation to first, second, third or more time offenses. I'd wager that well over fifty percent of those prisoners have been arrested and convicted of crimes in the past...

While some might view this as evidence that the war on drugs is a failure, I view it as evidence that our judicial system is relatively healthy and our prison system is an absolute failure. One should want to do everything in their power to avoid going to prison for a second time, yet far too many people view it as their second or even first home.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Good. Fewer dopeheads on the street to break into my house or car, commit DUI, burn down the apartment building when their meth lab goes bad, etc.

[BenLurkin]

How about violent crime?

Street robberies? Residential burglaries? Hold-ups? Strong-arm robberies? Smash and grab robberies? Muggings?

If these are down then it is probably because the drug addicts are locked up.

[JTN]

What's with the "b" symbols? Trying to bold the headline when you can't?

Um...well...yes.

[ElkGroveDan]

(b>Feature: Drug War Prisoner Count Over Half a Million, US Prison Population at All-Time High (/b>

Nice try. You forgot (font size=9>

[genefromjersey]

GOOD !!!

[Libloather]

More than half a million people were behind bars for drug offenses...

And not one of them are behind bars for smoking pot. I wonder what they did...

[JTN]

Thanks for the tip. My HTML chops, eh, not so good.

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

Instead of imprisonment, bring back the chain gangs and resurface the hi-ways and by-ways, pick up trash, etc.

[Westlander]

So should we buy stock in Zyklon-B ?

[NapkinUser]

"Thanks for the tip. My HTML chops, eh, not so good."

I think he is lying through his teeth.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

If we were really in a drug war, we would shoot every pusher, dealer, maker, mule or grower of criminal drugs.

These types of people put more kids on the road to ruin than anything else.

[traviskicks]

"And the point of this is what? That we need more prisons?"
---


How about less prisoners, especially noncriminal ones...



Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.

[JTN]

How about violent crime? Street robberies? Residential burglaries? Hold-ups? Strong-arm robberies? Smash and grab robberies? Muggings? If these are down then it is probably because the drug addicts are locked up.

I see some problems here.

1. Drug users often do commit crimes to support their habits, but this is largely due to the fact that the black market status drives the price up to a ridiculous point.

2. From the article: "Imprisoning large numbers of people has some effect on crime, but there is a point of diminishing returns," argued the Sentencing Project's Mauer. "Initial research shows that maybe a quarter of the decline in violent crime is due to incarceration, but that means three-quarters isn't. The rest has something to do with a relatively healthy economy in the 1990s, the reduction in crime and violence associated with the maturing of the crack cocaine epidemic in the early 1990s, and the efforts by police in some cities to reduce the flow of guns."

3. I don't know whether or not there are any statistics to back this up, but some have argued that due to the large prison population, violent offenders must be released in order to make room for nonviolent drug offenders.