"More than One in 100 Adults Are Behind Bars, Pew Study Finds," is the title of the article. Please read it so you will know what I'm talking about.
http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_ektid35890.aspx
I'm mad as hell, and just not going to take it anymore! At least, I'm not going to take it without speaking out about it. And, I'm going to speak about it to everyone who will listen.
There are a couple of things wrong here.
First, you and I are paying for this. Forget the cost of being a victim of crime. That could cost you anywhere from a few dollars to your life. I mean the cost of law enforcement, the courts, prisons, and supporting an immense adult population, many of them for decades or the rest of their miserable lives. Don't discount this. The law requires all of the essentials and many of the niceties of life be afforded these prisoners, at your expense. They get better medical care than you do. They get more balanced diets and nutritious food than you do. They get, and get, and get, and ALL at your expense. From the moment one of them pulls a gun on a store clerk, until his sorry ass is buried at age 97, you are paying all his bills. How do you like that? I don't!
Second, the article on the Pew Study, only looks at data concerning current prison and jail populations. Our prisons and jails have revolving doors. We all know that. It doesn't matter exactly what the recidivism rate is, we all know it's high. So, when Pew looks at the current population, it doesn't include all of those other criminals out there that haven't been caught (again) yet. So, for every current prisoner, we can safely figure that at least one or more additional criminals are out and actively preying on society. So, when the Pew Study cites that 1 out of every 9 young black males between the ages of 20 and 34 are behind bars, just how many more do you figure are free, and committing crimes? I pick the black statistic simply because it is the worst statistic. My comments apply equally to the others cited by Pew.
Now, I have another two things to say about all this.
First, I want to dispel the notion that some of you have that most of this is due to "mistakes" made by underprivileged, or neglected youths.
We are talking about adults here. Ages 20 to 34. These are not kids. A "mistake," when that concept is applied to a choice, means the accidental selection of a wrong choice. Which shell is the pea under? Oops, you made a "mistake," you picked the wrong shell. That's a "mistake." Deciding to commit a crime is a choice. But, it is not an accidental choice. It is a deliberate choice made with full knowledge that it is a wrong choice. None of the 1 out of 9 blacks is in prison because he made a mistake. He's there because he intentionally did wrong.
Sure, I know how horrifyingly sad and disillusioning the childhoods of many of these young men must have been. I know about absentee fathers, drug crazed mothers, gangs, peer pressures, lousy public education, and all that. But, I didn't do that, and I don't want to pay for it. The inescapable truth is, that regardless of their previous circumstances, by the time these young men reached age 20, they knew the difference between right and wrong. And, they knew that it is wrong to murder, rape, and rob. Yet, those were the choices they made.
Second, it should be obvious to everyone that not only our society, but also our justice system is badly broken. We not only allow children to be raised into a culture of crime, but we do almost nothing to punish those who commit those crimes. The fact is that a life behind bars is in many ways a better quality life than those inmates experienced on the outside. Rehabilitation in prison is a joke, and where is the punishment?
Here is what I suggest be done about all this.
We need to standardize the criminal laws across this country. It makes no sense at all for the States to have different criminal laws and punishments, when criminals and victims travel freely across all their borders.
1. We should decriminalize all so called "victimless crimes." That includes drug offenses, and consenting adult sex offenses.
2. We should narrow down the category of felony offenses to include only those violent crimes such as murder, rape, armed robbery, burglary of buildings, etc. These should only include crimes where there is a reasonable likelihood that an innocent victim may be injured or killed.
3. All other offenses, such as embezzlement, forgery, simple assaults (fist fights), public disturbances, etc., should be regarded as civil rather than criminal offenses.
4. Now for the tough part. Felons, under number 2 above, should be executed. Perhaps there should be provisions for a jury to allow some 2nd chances. But, that is a slippery slope that could easily bring us back to where we are now. Execution should take place at once following a mandatory appeal. There should be only one appeal allowed. The appeal should be heard as soon as possible, but the maximum allowed appeal period should be no longer than 6 months from the date of the conviction.
5. The civil offenses under number 3 above should be determined by judge or jury, much like we do today. Accused persons should be presumed innocent, and released on their own recognizance. Failure to appear (skipping out) should be a felony under number 2 above, due to the risk it creates to officers who have to chase the accused down. On a determination of liability (much like a conviction today), a liable person would be assigned public service work, and required to make restitution to the victims, including immediate forfeiture of assets. Public service work camps would be established which would pay for themselves through the services of the workers. Again, running away would be treated as a felony under number two above.
If this plan were instituted, the violent crime rate would plummet. We could tear down all these stupid prisons. We could save Billions of dollars (your money), and have a much needed public work force to help maintain our aging infrastructure and build new public facilities.
If I can sit here at my computer and formulate this in an hour, our politicians could get something like this accomplished in a term or two. Why won't they?