Criminals, The Ultimate Government Leeches

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Maybe we're incarcerating too much? There are plenty of non-violent offenders locked up for smoking a joint or lighting up the crack pipe. Not saying that there aren't crimes that do warrant the offenders to be locked up (there most certainly are) but I am sure that we could do with much less of this. Of course, prison corporations would suffer as that would cut into their bottom lines. But that is a rather non-productive part of the economy anyways so there's really nothing wrong with shrinking it down in size to what is necessary rather than what's profitable.

Incarceration is punishment, not prevention. It is part of the "cost" of crime that we want to reduce, right? Reduce it by eliminating the seeds of crime.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Incarceration is punishment, not prevention. It is part of the "cost" of crime that we want to reduce, right? Reduce it by eliminating the seeds of crime.

So, you think that we're better off having the highest incarcerated population among developed countries? Don't you think that there are a number of folks that really don't need to be locked up - i.e. where there are other and more appropriate punishments for whatever wrong they did?

[The_Dude 1,142]

Incarceration is punishment, not prevention. It is part of the "cost" of crime that we want to reduce, right? Reduce it by eliminating the seeds of crime.

So how do you feel about people who have commited crimes and lose their right to own firearms?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

So, you think that we're better off having the highest incarcerated population among developed countries? Don't you think that there are a number of folks that really don't need to be locked up - i.e. where there are other and more appropriate punishments for whatever wrong they did?

No. But you do not reduce the incarcerated population permanently by letting criminals out of prison. You reduce the incarcerated population by preventing crime by eliminating the sources of crime.

I made suggestions to reduce CRIME, not to reduce prison populations.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

So how do you feel about people who have commited crimes and lose their right to own firearms?

Fine with me. As a law abiding person and gun owner, I do not like when criminals give excuses to stupid people and people that wish to restrict our freedom to demand restrictions on my rights.

Criminals SHOULD be incarcerated (I do not care if we have the most incarcerated people of any country, I am not ashamed of it) and people convicted of felonies should be forbidden from owning firearms. (they are) I have no beef with this and you never heard me say I did. I also have no problem with instant background checks and if the system is made available to all people (it could be, easily), then I have no problem with requiring it for all firearms sales.

[The_Dude 1,142]

No. But you do not reduce the incarcerated population permanently by letting criminals out of prison. You reduce the incarcerated population by preventing crime by eliminating the sources of crime.

I made suggestions to reduce CRIME, not to reduce prison populations.

Your suggestions won't reduce crime, they only deal with the symptoms of it.....

[slim 1,530]

Gee slim, I wonder why YOU of all people think we don't need law enforcement.

Criminals cost us too much money to just let it go. They need to be held accountable, or be incarcerated.

I am a criminal. You can point that out as much as you want. I was convicted of a misdemeanor. You PWNED me here on VJ, yet again with that one. Way to go.

However, that's not why I don't think we need law enforcement. For the record, I think we do need law enforcement. We need a sheriff or a small police force to deal with criminals once the citizens arrest them. What we don't need is this officer per square mile round-the-clock patrols we have now. We don't need THOUSANDS of people in prison and THOUSANDS more going through court every day.

We need to let society take care of itself.

Why should we allow the criminals to dig our country further into debt because their poor decisions. Criminals are the epitome of un-American.

It's the same reason we keep paying people to do nothing more than reproduce and watch bootleg cable - we don't want to deal with it ourselves.

We agree to lock people up for silly things because we think they're "bad" people. As evidenced by your posts, "criminals" are bad people and need to be locked up with the key thrown away. If you really think about it, we could save a lot of money by dealing with those folks in our own communities.

I would like to see an all-out effort on the repeat offenders and I think this would-in the long run, save a fortune.

That's a good idea.

I'm more worried about their impact on our nation and society financially. $1.7 trillion per year is what they cost us. I don't think I should have to pay the legal fees for some criminal.

You mean it's what we agree to pay? You're always talking about how society works. Isn't society the one that set this up?

Maybe we're incarcerating too much? There are plenty of non-violent offenders locked up for smoking a joint or lighting up the crack pipe. Not saying that there aren't crimes that do warrant the offenders to be locked up (there most certainly are) but I am sure that we could do with much less of this.

Bingo!

Incarceration is punishment, not prevention. It is part of the "cost" of crime that we want to reduce, right? Reduce it by eliminating the seeds of crime.

Incarceration is not punishment. It's what we do to "send the bad guys away." It's for us. Not for them.

The second part of your post is what we need to do. We can't eliminate crime by "punishing" people. We can ony eliminate it by taking away the causes.

there are a number of folks that really don't need to be locked up - i.e. where there are other and more appropriate punishments for whatever wrong they did?

Society says we have to "punish" the bad guy. As long as we live under that false sense of justice, we'll continue to waste our money on the criminal justice system.

[웃 910]

We need police stations to operate like a fire station.....You don't see fire trucks roaming around the streets "looking" for fires. No, they wait until they are needed and when it is 'go time''; they turn on the sirens, and rush to the scene of the fire.

All police officers should be playing baseball at the station waiting on the alarm to sound. When it does; they put their donuts down and rush to the scene of the crime.

What we don't need is speed traps or officers instigating traffic citations. Or following a couple of teenagers (that will probably grow out of their 'weed phase') and pulling them over, then treating them like they are criminals, and giving them tickets that put them on probation and force them to pay $1000s of dollars in court costs and fines.

Another (more bizarre) idea I have is to make all jails like a zoo in the sense that the public can pay an admission fee (and a $10 parking fee) and let the public look at the animals in there. Put a little story on the jail cell, let them peek in, maybe even feed the animal for an extra $10.

Edited February 9, 2011 by Lord Infamous

[slim 1,530]

We need police stations to operate like a fire station.....You don't see fire trucks roaming around the streets "looking" for fires. No, they wait until they are needed and when it is 'go time''; they turn on the sirens, and rush to the scene of the fire.

All police officers should be playing baseball at the station waiting on the alarm to sound. When it does; they put their donuts down and rush to the scene of the crime.

What we don't need is speed traps or officers instigating traffic citations. Or following a couple of teenagers (that will probably grow out of their 'weed phase') and pulling them over, then treating them like they are criminals, and giving them tickets that put them on probation and force them to pay $1000s of dollars in court costs and fines.

Spoken like someone who's actually thought this through.

Another (more bizarre) idea I have is to make all jails like a zoo in the sense that the public can pay an admission fee (and a $10 parking fee) and let the public look at the animals in there. Put a little story on the jail cell, let them peek in, maybe even feed the animal for an extra $10.

http://www.bustedmagazine.com/

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Yes the good old posse day's of the wild wild west... Citizens making arrests... What could go wrong?

[Danno 1,228]

Yes the good old posse day's of the wild wild west... Citizens making arrests... What could go wrong?

Let me finish your sentence.

-What could go wrong, thats not happening already?

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Let me finish your sentence.

-What could go wrong, thats not happening already?

Plenty, go read a history book.

Edited February 9, 2011 by ready4ONE

[Danno 1,228]

Plenty, go read a history book.

Thats the interesting thing about reading a history book to understand current happening, you can take any part of history and project it onto today to get the "lesson" you want to get.

I think AJ just posted a great example of that with his American Indian post today.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Criminals are the epitome of un-American.

Where did you ever get that idea? We are the black sheep of the world.

America was settled by fortune hunters, smugglers, dead beats, and religious zealots. Georgia was founded as a penal colony to act as a buffer between the Spanish colony of Florida, and the Carolinas. Among the later immigrants were the refuse of Europe, and conscripted labor from Asia. Nope. Mongrel dogs all. Not blue blood in the whole lot.

Edited February 9, 2011 by Some Old Guy

[TBoneTX 45,910]

Send them to a penal colony. Is Australia still open for business?

Offer each jailed criminal a choice: remain in prison, or receive $10,000 (or some unignorable amount), be released, and emigrate to another country (to pick one garden-spot, say Niger). Sell the idea that they can live like kings there with $10,000 in their pockets. In the agreement that they sign would be a statement saying that they agree to give up their U.S. citizenship permanently and irrevocably, and that no return visas are possible. Ship them to Niger, drop them off, and say "so long."