Posted on 08/05/2009 1:53:44 AM PDT by MartinaMisc
OF THE 2.3 million people in prisons and jails in the United States, roughly 140,000, or 6 percent, are serving life sentences. Of that number, about 41,000 - 1.8 percent of all inmates - were sentenced to life without parole. Both numbers are at an all-time high.
Should Americans be troubled by this? The Sentencing Project thinks so. In a new report, the liberal advocacy group complains that the growth in life sentences has been costly and unjust. It “challenges the supposition that all life sentences are necessary to keep the public safe,’’ and particularly disapproves of life without parole.
As a matter of policy, the Sentencing Project supports abolition of both the death penalty and life without parole, an eccentric position that most Americans don’t share. Nevertheless, the group’s new report - “No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America’’ - has drawn deferential media attention, with stories appearing in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and Agence France-Press.
But good PR is not a substitute for sound analysis.
In its very first paragraph, “No Exit’’ asserts that the high incarceration rate is the result of “three decades of ‘tough on crime’ policies that have made little impact on crime.’’
America’s prison population has unquestionably grown in recent years, as prison sentences have lengthened and more criminals have been locked up. But far from negligible, the “impact on crime’’ has been dramatic. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Americans experienced 44 million crimes in 1973. By 2007, that number had dropped to 23 million - and this even as the population grew by more than 75 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
If they eliminate life without parole, then the death penalty will get more support. The only way liberals have been able to get any inroads in the death penalty was the life without parole.
They better think about what they are doing or it could bite them.
We are coming to the 40th Anniv. of the Manson Fam. Murders and stuff like this is why Doris Tate, the mother of Sharon Tate, switched from being a Demonrat to a Republican. She found out what they are about and was a heroine in getting a lot more victim rights and not all the criminal rights that Demonrats and their radical groups are for. This is a subject that should be highlighted by Republicans and anyone against the Demonrat party. Their judges are an issue and a part of the problem in allowing injustices to continue. The Republicans could have always made an issue of judges when the Demonrats wanted to focus on Roe v. Wade(and look how that is turning around with public opinion shifting) and make it an issue against the GOP appointing judges when the Demonrats are responsible for countless radical judges making scary and absurd decisions. The ignorance of the people is what Demonrats always rely on for their schemes and power.
All these people locked up for so long is very, very troubling.
They should of been hung, shot, electrocuted.
There should in these prisons be 24/7/365 electric booths where if at any moment these leftist feel a pang of conscious, they can go in the booth, sit down and pull the 13,000 volt lever.
ping for later
Yet the report devotes almost obsessive attention... to the alleged racial disparity those sentences reflect. About 48 percent of lifers are black, 33 percent are white, and 14 percent are Hispanic. “These figures are consistent with a larger pattern in the criminal justice system,’’ the report notes, “in which African Americans are represented at an increasingly disproportionate rate across the continuum from arrest through incarceration.’’Yet the report mentions only in passing a far more striking disparity: Nearly 97 percent of inmates serving life terms are men. If it is noteworthy that blacks, who account for 12 percent of the general population, make up 48 percent of lifers, shouldn’t it be even more significant that men, who comprise less than half the population at large, represent nearly all those sentenced to life?
The explanation, of course, is that men commit the vast majority of serious crime; that fact, not sexism, explains the disproportionate incarceration rate.
Likewise the racial disparity: Though blacks account for just one-eighth of the US population, they are six times more likely than whites to be murdered, and seven times more likely to commit murder. That hard fact, not racism, explains the high proportion of lifers who are black. But such inconvenient facts appear nowhere in the Sentencing Project’s report.
Such a simple and effective argument, it never occurred to me to use it but I will use it from now on when people bring this point up.
Though blacks account for just one-eighth of the US population, they are six times more likely than whites to be murdered, and seven times more likely to commit murder.
[Strange, words instead of numbers for this part;]
Though blacks account for just 1/8 of the US population, they are 6 X more likely than whites to be murdered, and 7 X more likely to commit murder.
Why is that strange? There are actually grammar rules to word versus number usage.
I think people stretch too hard to see things between the lines sometimes when what is important is actually spelled out for them in the lines themselves.
This is a pretty good article pointing out that the idiot lefties who want us to turn the prisoners loose and end life without parole are wrong. This article is written from a conservative viewpoint AGAINST liberal ideas.
No conspiracy.
Here’s a link to the grammar for numbers for your cotinuing erudition.
http://www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp
IIRC the unwritten rule here in the UK is that numbers less than about twenty get put into words.
Also of course we use the words ‘million’, ‘billion’ etc rather than writing all those zeroes.
It's the result of a five decade liberal attack on the family; especially the fragile black family. They shouldn't be surprised when a fatherless kid ends up having to do the time.
Yes we should. I'm troubled because most of the other 6% should also be in for life without parole, or in many cases should be executed just to be sure they never kill, maim, or rape any other innocent victims.
"Gen 9:6, Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man."
OF THE 2.3 million people in prisons and jails in the United States, roughly 140,000, or 6 percent, are serving life sentences. Of that number, about 41,000 - 1.8 percent of all inmates - were sentenced to life without parole. Both numbers are at an all-time high.
Should Americans be troubled by this?
YES we should be troubled by this. At least several hundred thousand of these should never, ever see the light of day, because they have no capacity to live amongst human beings. The death penalty is woefully under used in this Country.
It’s strange because the format change, as you see the previous paragraphs;
Yet the report devotes almost obsessive attention... to the alleged racial disparity those sentences reflect. About 48 percent of lifers are black, 33 percent are white, and 14 percent are Hispanic. “These figures are consistent with a larger pattern in the criminal justice system,’’ the report notes, “in which African Americans are represented at an increasingly disproportionate rate across the continuum from arrest through incarceration.’’
Yet the report mentions only in passing a far more striking disparity: Nearly 97 percent of inmates serving life terms are men. If it is noteworthy that blacks, who account for 12 percent of the general population, make up 48 percent of lifers, shouldn’t it be even more significant that men, who comprise less than half the population at large, represent nearly all those sentenced to life?
Yet even Levitt has estimated that for each additional criminal locked up, there is “a reduction of between five and six reported crimes.’’This is NORMAL. I attached a link for you in my other post with the rules for numbers. There are definite grammar rules for when to spell out a number and when it's acceptable to use the number itself.
Rule number one: spell out single digit numbers. Use numerals for numbers over nine (seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12).
they are six times more likely than whites to be murdered, and seven times more likely to commit murder.But!
blacks, who account for 12 percent of the general population, make up 48 percent of lifers
Rule number three: Always spell out simple fractions and use hyphens with them.
Though blacks account for just one-eighth of the US population
Rule number five: The simplest way to express large numbers is best
But
Rule number six: Write decimals in figures. Thus:
2.3 million people
But!!!
Rule number two: Be consistent within a category. For example, if you choose numerals because one of the numbers is greater than nine, use numerals for all numbers in that category.
So, you get:
2.3 million people in prisons and jails in the United States, roughly 140,000, or 6 percent, are serving life sentences. Of that number, about 41,000 - 1.8 percent of all inmatesWhere the '6 percent' seems to violate rule number one but it doesn't because you have to use a number to keep it consistent within the category of things he his talking about in that paragraph.
We learned all this stuff in school. At least I did anyway. Trust me, the way the numbers are used in this article is 'A-OK!'.
No secret conspiracies or anything. It's just normal usage.
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