Sen. Tom Cotton: U.S. has 'under-incarceration problem'

Sen. Tom Cotton on Thursday slammed his colleagues' efforts to pass sweeping criminal justice reforms, saying the United States is actually suffering from an "under-incarceration problem."

Cotton, who has been an outspoken critic of the bill in Congress that would reduce mandatory minimum sentences, smacked down what he called "baseless" arguments that there are too many offenders locked up for relatively small crimes, that incarceration is too costly, or that "we should show more empathy toward those caught up in the criminal-justice system."

"Take a look at the facts. First, the claim that too many criminals are being jailed, that there is over-incarceration, ignores an unfortunate fact: for the vast majority of crimes, a perpetrator is never identified or arrested, let alone prosecuted, convicted, and jailed," Cotton said during a speech at The Hudson Institute, according to his prepared remarks. "Law enforcement is able to arrest or identify a likely perpetrator for only 19 percent of property crimes and 47 percent of violent crimes. If anything, we have an under-incarceration problem." Expanding upon his remarks during a question-and-answer session, Cotton said releasing felons under reduced sentences serves only to destabilize the communities in which they are released.

“I saw this in Baghdad. We’ve seen it again in Afghanistan," recalled Cotton, who served in the Army during both wars. "Security has to come first, whether you’re in a war zone or whether you’re in the United States of America.”

“What’s the point of incarcerating them for the rest of their lives?”

I often feel this way about heroin and meth dealers. I’d execute the repeat offenders.

If you’re caught dealing once, you get what amounts to a slap on a wrist and a warning that you will die if caught again unless any deaths are linked to the junk you’re dealing. In that case, you are executed. This is the liberal side of me having compassion in that any person is capable of making a mistake once.

When caught a second time, firing squad.

These drugs turn people into walking dead. I have no sympathy for those that sell it. I’d apply the same rules to medical professionals that are caught selling prescription meds illegally.

We let these criminals involved with this garbage get away with slaps on the wrist when they’re caught. I dont want this garbage to live off taxpayers in prison for life.

“I don’t agree at all. I hear all the time of ridiculous laws and punishments.”

I really think you will be hard pressed to find somebody incarcerated in a prison, on a ‘ridiculous’ charge. Yes, the occasional story pops up where a jaywalker goes to jail...but people actually tried and sentenced to prison on something so silly? Very rare.

At most, it could be argued that 3 strike laws put people in prison for minor crimes. But I guarantee you - the next time you see a story about a guy getting 20 years for stealing a candy bar...if you were to research his history...you would find a long trail of serious crimes in his past, which had been pled down to minor offenses, along with the first 2 ‘strikes’, which are likely very serious crimes. Like I said, they don’t end up in prison by accident.

I looked up some info on the ‘20 years for a candy bar’ guy (Jacobia Grimes)as an example. It does sound ridiculous on its face - and there were a lot of sympathetic stories about him. So lets look at his record:

First of all - 24 prior arrests. Ever have something stolen out of your home, car, or business? Somebody like Jacobia Grimes is the one who did it. This guy’s occupation is theft, and preying upon other people. Odds are he will never stop - if he’s out of prison, he will prey on people. Its his lifestyle.

He’s been convicted of 10 crimes, 7 of them felonies. That’s a lot of ‘strikes’.

Now I searched high and low, and the media really never spells out his crimes. So I went to the Orleans Parish website:

http://www.opcso.org/dcktmstr/dmdspscn.php?d1scnn=708927

Theft, cocaine possession, possession of stolen property, criminal damage to property, possession of a stolen car, possessing counterfeit money...just about everything under the sun.

I imagine if I formed a timeline of all his time incarcerated, I would find very small gaps between...in which he was a free man, but chose to steal again and ended up arrested. Bottom line - when not in prison, he almost immediately commits another crime.

This guy is the most recent poster child for the ‘ridiculous charges’ meme...and I’m sure typical of most these stories. BTW, he showed up to court with not 1, not 2...but 4 different types of drugs in his system. How do you suppose he bought those drugs? I’d guess he stole something.

But the only story we hear is how ridiculous it is to get 20 years for a candy bar. I take all such stories with a grain of salt - and even if all these stories were legitimate, they would constitute a incredible small percent of the prison population, and would still be considered outliers.

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