Posted on 11/02/2013 7:44:44 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
Agreed - it’s just a matter of time before my big mouth will get me convicted of a hate crime & I will be in the Big House or FEMA camp.
There’s the old 80/20 rule at play here - 20% give or take of the prison population should never be released due to their violent crimes and the 100% likelihood of repeating those crimes once back out on the streets. The other 80% need to be punished, but the punishment should fit the crime — for some, incarceration is the better option. The criminally mentally ill need treatment, but once they are out, no guarantees of them keeping up their treatment, so then what? There is a significant number of illegal aliens in our prisons, too, so I think we should send a bill to Mexico or wherever for that.
Repentance & Salvation through Jesus Christ really is the only answer for a turnaround - Chuck Colson knew that - may he RIP.
Bernard Kerik spent 3 years in Club Fed, Cumberland, MD then finished his sentence under home confinement. He makes it sound like he spent his time at Pelican Bay.
Mandatory sentencing came about to avoid race baiting. Everyone is treated the same. The first time offender with a nickel bag of cocaine and the repeat offender caught with cocaine. It’s like zero tolerance at commie schools.
In addition liberal judges and politicians were into “rehabilitation” and had zillions spent on “programs” with big city shake down artists. They would release murderers after rehab and the vast majority offended again and again. The public was being slaughtered and no one cared at all.
Had they just put mandatory sentencing on violent criminals, that was what was intended but they expanded it unjustly to prove to voter they were “tough on crime.”
Except that you usually can't do crime while in prison.
If somebody is willing to risk 5 years in jail over a nickel-sized bit of cocaine, they already have a serious deficiency in ability in figuring out the probable consequences of their actions. Nobody has been very good at fixing that problem, so just having these folks off the streets is probably the best we can do.
Fair play but if that’s the case the answer is better judges through more scrutiny, accountability, etc.
Mandatory minimums put good and bad judges on equal (inferior) footing just as zero tolerance makes robots out of school administrators.
If anything, the opposite is true. This "free" nation is free enough that people have a lot of latitude in their behavior ... and the simple truth is that a lot of people have no intention of recognizing even the most basic behavioral norms of a civilized society.
In almost any other jurisdiction in the U.S. he would have been considered a flaming Marxist.
I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said, but you might want to take a good hard look at Bernard Kerik’s background before you paint him as something of a victim here.
That is not how I interpret it, no. I knew he had a rather liberal personal life, but probably would have governed rather conservatively, on terror, judges, and taxes and regulations.
To what are you referring?
Yes, it’s very discouraging and taxing for those compelled to do the right thing.
My object was not to rehabilitate Kerrick but to indict our political system which, like Kerrick, has betrayed its trust and taken us to a place of imminent peril. At least it has ceased to function as intended by the founders and as defended by patriots over the centuries.
Bernard Kerrick is no martyr but the system is hypocritical.
Pushing Rudy?
You must be new around here.
Certainly it wasn't a Federal "Pound Me in the A--" Prison.
Look at Charlie Rangel, - who was actually Chairman of the all-powerful Ways and Means Committee.
no, not at all….he’s not running….but I do think there was way too much emphasis on how he lived and not enough on how he governed….but that’s all an academic hypothetical now.
That's common here.
Spot on. Prison in America is a complete failure. That active gangs and Muslim terror groups function there with impunity tells you the inmates are running things. Something’s totally broken.
You are right. I knew a guy who went to prison on a gang/gun charge. He had his own room, watched television and played cards all day, plus got three square meals. It was an improvement on life outside. He felt safe there. He’d have stayed if they would have let him.
That’s the problem, isn’t it. The vast majority of criminals are bad thinkers. Just like the vast majority of welfare recipients. They are short term thinkers, hedonistic, and lacking in self-control. Prison doesn’t fix that. It just takes them out of the pool for a while.
We need a better system both for prisons and welfare.
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