Bibliography:
School to Prison Pipeline – NAACP Legal Defense Fund
http://www.naacpldf.org/conten…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/i…
The prison industry – new form of slavery?The Prison/Industrial Complex
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc…
Disparate impact/county by county ranking by disparate racial backgrounds:
http://www.justicepolicy.org/c…
Please share widely!
Although I agree with all of your arguments, I couldn’t help thinking of Kerby Revelus, the long-time incarceration of whom (in a locked mental ward somewhere) could have spared his 5-year-old and 17-year-old sisters, as well as himself, from brutal and untimely deaths. But this was a rare and horrific tragedy, and one never knows who will snap like this before it happens. The science of psychology isn’t exact enough.
What treatment did he get, or not get? Maybe some “gentle reader” can tell us.
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p>But what I know is that the juvenile justice system is NOT the place to treat/stabilize/diagnoze young folk with major mental illness, whether “merely” debilitating or dangerous.
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p>I came across a 15 year old who is honestly stating his goal is to be a serial murderer. I found that credible given that he had strangled his sister until she passed out and made clear he enjoyed this.
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p>It was in one of those now-discontinued GAL cases. I took him seriously. Last time I knew, he was in a residential placement. He should have been identified and in treatment years before, based on his behavior. Is he still out of circulation? I have no way of knowing.
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p>Will be be stable when released? I have no way of knowing. Is he a candidate for a group home, or does he need residential level of care? Well, I got the system and a judge to order residential care…last year. Before GALs were deleted from the system by CJAM Mulligan.
She advocates legalizing and taxing pot, and calls out Obama for his kneejerk opposition to the idea.
Whether it is financial markets, or any other kind of goods.
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p>As long as there is a market, there will be sales. Competent regulations works better than either prohibition or “the Wild West” that results when greed is not regulated.
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p>Certainly, locking up more and more people has not done any good and is d*mn expensive.
The guy’s trying to avoid a global depression, figure out whether/how to save two critical industries (banking and autos), wind up Iraq and figure out Afghanistan, and develop sane health care and energy policies.
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p>Illicit drug use has significant health care, law enforcement, and even national security implications, but can you imagine what Fox News would be like if Obama came out as pro-legalization right now? The sad reality is that public opinion isn’t where it needs to be yet, so the political risks, given everything else, are simply too high.
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p>Great leaders like Lincoln know that there were limits to how much and how fast one could move public opinion. Lincoln’s set up for the Emancipation Proclamation (and the proclamation itself) is a masterful example of how to do this.
What I can’t imagine is why any intelligent person would care. It’s long past time for said intelligent people to ignore the life out of FN.
But those are in ICE detention facilities. I say “less than,” because many of the ICE detainees have never been charged with anything, including being here illegally. Some of them are children. It’s not clear whether the 32K are included in the much bigger number that’s the subject of this post.
The Depression brought the end of the Prohibition of alcohol. Maybe the Great Recession will bring legalization of marijuana. We could use the cash.
Just go to: http://www.google.com/hostedne…
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p>Hundreds of convictions were overturned because a prison bed provider was paying judges to create “clients” for them to lock up. Without the big bucks earned by outsourced prisons, this corruption would not have happened and these young people would not have had their lives derailed and possibly destroyed.
First I think Webb’s request for a “national commission” is excellent and well overdue. I respect Webb as a decorated veteran and a great example of an American, including his son who served in Iraq.
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p>His questions…
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p>Why are so many Americans currently in prison compared with other countries and our own history?
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p>>>> My question… why are so many Americans commiting crimes vs. people in other countries? Start at the beginning… why are American, of all races, killing, raping, stealing… so much compared to Japan and other countries? Do we have any pride, do we have disregard for law or our fellow citizen’s property. Do the crime, do the time.
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p>What is this policy costing our nation, both in tax dollars and in lost opportunities?
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p>>>> What policy?
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p>How can we reshape our nation’s drug policies?
>>> I agree.
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p>How can we better diagnose and treat mental illness?
>>> I agree.
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p>How can we end violence within prisons and increase the quality of prison administrators?
>>> I agree, although I don’t think there is any problems with the “quality” of Administrators. You couldn’t pay me enough to do their jobs. The question might be what kind of rules can we create to help them with their jobs?
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p>How can we build workable re-entry programs so that our communities can assimilate former offenders and encourage them to become productive citizens?
>>> Worth a pilot program at least.
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p>How can we defend ourselves against the growing scourge of violent, internationally based gang activity?
>>> I agree.
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p>The main story, complete with its biases was too one-sided. Questions I had were…
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p>Drug offenders, most of them passive users or minor dealers, are swamping our prisons.
>>> Any data to back up this statement?
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p>Yet locking up more of these offenders has done nothing to break up the power of the multibillion-dollar illegal drug trade. Nor has it brought about a reduction in the amounts of the more dangerous drugs–such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines–that are reaching our citizens.
>>> What if “not” locking these people up would have made things worse?
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p>Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity.
>>> Let’s try something. Take a half dozen states and release all non-violent drug possession offenders. Make drug possession legal and monitor the results.
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p>With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different–and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.
>>> Why is this obvious? Maybe we are more evil. Some of the numbers of our murder rate vs other countries may explain why our incarceration rates are higher. Obviously there are major differences in our society vs many other countries. Why couldn’t some of our social norms create environments where the “animal” comes out in people more often. Where are the crimes in the US being committed and what makes these areas so different? Crimes pretty low in my town.
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p>Overcrowding could be first managed by releasing non-violent drug users, building or expanding some prison hospitals to get the “diseased” criminals out of the general population and lastly building/opening some of the Mental Institutions to house the criminally insane people so they can never hurt anyone, including fellow criminals, guards or prison workers ever again.
back in December.
http://vps28478.inmotionhosting.com/~bluema24/s…
…are there crimes for which we incarcerate that others would not. Otherwise, I believe it or not actually agree with JohnD for once that we have to ask whether more crimes per capita are committed here.
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p>I would be open to not incarcerating non-violent drug users, but would still want to throw the book at those who try to hook and distribute to kids. As for marijuana, I’m OK with it being entirely a state rather than federal prorogative, but on the merits would prefer not to legalize it entirely.
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p>For me the chief culprit is the availability of firearms. These other nations simply do not have the gun fetish that frankly we do. When it comes to crime an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So between stricter gun control and doing more to get and keep people on a path away from crime, that should have the added effect of reducing the incarceration rate.
There are three other variables here:
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p>-crimes for which people are found guilty. In much of the developing world, there are far more crimes than those convicted, which brings their average down. Rio de Jainero and Cape Town find someone guilty for less than 10% of murders committed;
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p>-length of prison terms. Cowardly politicians always push for longer prison terms. Our population may be higher because our convicts have longer prison terms than other nations.
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p>-rate of recidivism. Throwing people in jail for minor drug crimes, which is basically awarding them a full scholarship to Crime University, probably doesn’t help.
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p>I’m not sure gun control is as much a contributor as the “lock ’em up and forget about ’em” mentality of trying to break a prisoner, rather than attempting real rehabilitation.
Not that it changes the overall point that our system is broken, but note that the US has “25% of the world’s reported prisoners” which is a bit different than saying “25% of all prisoners on Earth.”
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p>I think it’s safe to say that places like Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe and Burma (among many, many others) don’t exactly have the same reporting standards that we do. China, for instance, only reports 117 prisoners per 100,000, but some independent watchdogs put the real number at 6-7 times that.
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p>It certainly doesn’t excuse the shortcomings in our justice system, but 10-12% of the world prison population is a little more manageable than 25%.
Are there comparative studies that attempt ‘adjust’ for this?
About 40 years ago state governments looked for ways to save money on care for the mentally ill. There were numerous situations where the police would bring a severely violent person to a state hospital that would only medicate the patient, get him a bus ticket and call a cab to bring him to bus station. Problem solved.
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p>Eventually the states closed their hospitals as much as they could and let the patients “free” and on the streets. Now the mentally ill are sent to prisons. Jails and prisons are the catch-all for not just criminals, but sick people, even protesters.
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p>What happened to the idea that government is supposed to protect the citizens from danger? All citizens.
Four more people dead.
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p>Come on all you Dorchesterites. Time to start attacking me and defend Dorchester. Who in their right mind would go to a party in Dorchester, especially in the higher crime areas. Do yourself a favor and before you, your friends or your kids go to anything in that area, check this map to see here the crimes are being committed. It’s not only a good idea, it could save your life.
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p>Let’s stop with all the “good kid” remarks as well. These people are monsters and I don’t care how old or young they are. The guy who just shot 4 cops in Oakland is dead and I’m glad. His family said he was a “good kid” and was trying to turn his life around. They forgot to mention his DNA has been linked to the rape of a 12 year old girl in January and he was carrying a gun when the cops pulled him over (prior to killing 4 cops). Too bad something couldn’t have happened to this kid (like his death), maybe in jail, that would have prevented the rape, the murders and whatever else this total piece of shit did that we don’t even know about.
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p>My ideas are all stupid according to you guys but any ideas on how to stop violent incidents like this or the other asshole who killed his sisters a few days ago? If only this murderer could have smoked some weed to “chill out” before he killed three people. How many of these people committing real crimes in Dorchester are going to prison eventually and will be grouped into the racial disparity of our prison system? People go to prison because they commit crimes, plain and simple and the color of their skin doesn’t matter nor does the color of their victim’s skin. And yes I would prefer prevention instead of punishment but I don’t see what we could do to stop these crimes. If they do the crime they should do the time!