What could go wrong? </Sarc>
It depends on how this is implemented, but there is a lot of good that could come from reform.
Many ex-offenders have trouble finding employment. This sometimes leads to them towards a life of crime, or being dependent on taxpayer-funded welfare.
This is true. Many sentences that are not that long for crimes not that bad end up being life sentences, because they then become unemployable outside jail. Originally, once someone has "paid their dues" to society, they were allowed to continue on. But with background checks and everyone having a permanent record, that is no longer the case. We look around at the poor today, and think "why can't they just get a job?" Many of them have a glass ceiling over them.
Why care? Well consider being a conservative in the land now akin to the old USSR: Show me the man and I will show you the crime approach.
also not a convicted criminal and I agree with the author.
I would also like to see three strikes laws reformed. They were sold to us in California as one thing but, they are entirely another and extraordinarily punitive.
2nd amendment and voting rights should be restored after serving your time.
Stupid war on Drugs needs to end and so too the various laws of possession, particularly for pot.
BOHICA
I don’t agree with non-violent criminals getting no jail time. If it were victimless crimes, that’s another thing. white collar crimes are devastating to victims, and the convicted don’t get enough jail as it is. what is the deterrent to stealing money from people if they get no jail time and get to keep their record clean to set up and scam 100 more people?
It’s best to read the fine print.
“Reform” will NEVER happen. Too much money to be made from municipalities all the way up the food chain. More bad cops slipping through the cracks, more prisons (lots are private), private “healthcare” for said prisons (and jails), overtime, etc..etc. It’s an industry now.
I know a guy who is getting wrecked right now financially through the “judicial” system all because he was teaching his teen to drive before he got a permit. We aren’t talking a “big city” or massive highways, we are talking far outside suburbia to the point there are farms all over the landscape. The LEO threw reckless endangerment, endangering a minor and a slew of summary charges against the guy and he has never had a run in with the law. The LEO pulled the “I detected the smell of marijuana” thing after pulling them over for not signaling and the guy flat out said “bullshit, I want tested RIGHT. NOW. The LEO backed down on that one. Next up? “I detected the smell of alcohol”. No sobriety tests, no arrests (and -surprise!- no dash cam during discovery). Just sent on his way after about an hour and charges showing up in the mail one week later.
That stop should have been a citation only, not a first degree misdemeanor charge.
This is happening all OVER the country. Everyone of you posting is just one stop by a dysfunctional LEO away from having your world turned upside down.
Because “reform” has come to mean “vandalize” or “destroy” in recent times. A bank robber wishes to “reform” the bank. A murderer wishes to “reform” the life of his/her intended victim. “Immigration reform” is only the latest example.
There is nothing I want this administration to “reform”. Everything it has as yet “reformed” has turned into utter crap.