In reply to Kenny_McCormic:
In reply to Boost_Crazy:
You're using something called circular logic. You have to ask yourself WHY people keep going to prison, WHY are they committing crimes. Not "Prisons are full of criminals because there a lot of criminals in prison".
Rich white people are far more likely statistically speaking to get away with various crimes, there is a definite inequality there.
They are going to prison because they commit crimes. That's not circular logic, that's cause and effect. Coincidently, many of the people that are in prison are there because they don't understand cause and effect. As for why they commit crimes, see my first post. I don't care. I don't give much credit to all of the bullE36 M3 excuses. If they worried half as much about going to prison as you do for them, they wouldn't be there.
As I said before, I'm all for locking up rich white people who commit crimes. And I do concede that a rich white person (or a rich person in general) who is guilty of a crime is more likely to get away with it. But that doesn't make the poor person any less guilty. Life isn't fair. Rich guys also drive safer cars and live in better neighborhoods. Moral of the story? I guess if you want to commit crimes, or get in a car accident, be sure to get rich first. It's the land of opportunity.
At least in my state, you really need to work to get incarcerated if you are a non-violent offender. There are people in prison for non-violent offenses, but its usually not because they committed one non-violent offense, but so many non-violent offenses and are not amenable to changing behavior and there is little left to do with them other than to incarcerate them. If you don't, you may as well not have the law at the end of the day if it only applies to those who follow it.
A perfect example is driving on a suspended license. Most communities don't have a public transit system. Driver loses his license for whatever reason; points, DUI, child support, whatever, and they are on probation for that in the meantime. Driver continues to drive. Police know driver on sight and pull driver over. (Driver also likely has no insurance and no tags or tags from another car or stolen tags from you or someone else, and maybe some dope).
More tickets, more fines and/or probation terms. Driver continues to drive. So many misdemeanor offenses are cited, and eventually there is a driving while suspended charge that ordinarily and by itself would be a misdemeanor is now a felony due to the number of prior misdemeanor convictions. Driver maybe gets probation for the first felony. Driver continues to drive. Finally he gets a prison sentence. Driver, all this time of course, is not on the way to work, but more likely on the way to the liquor store at 11 AM for another 30 pack and some smokes, has ignored every probation condition he has ever had, and already been in and out of county jail for all the prior offenses and warrants for of course not appearing in court. I suppose there is plenty of room for argument about exactly how much damage is caused by drivers on suspended licenses. Then again, the chance that a driver with a suspended license will wipe out a family in a minivan with no insurance to cover that survivors loss or pay for medical care exists and happens from time to time.
There aren't enough resources to externalize what takes place inside a prison for most offenders, which is to say, relatively omni-present supervision. Probationers check in every month, more or less, and often by phone. Drug testing is random and beatable. If you can walk probation great. If you can't, there has to be another rung on the ladder, otherwise the probation didn't really mean much and the law didn't either. No one can forcibly change the way a person feels or thinks, only attempt to coerce a different outward behavior through a series of less pleasant alternatives. Some people just don't care, and can't be made to care. They are called criminals.
Gun control in my opinion, is probably the biggest "criminal justice" or public safety red herring in popular discussion today.
yamaha wrote:
In reply to Xceler8x:
My point was not that the Johnston Atoll was remote, it was more along the lines of its smaller than most small town airports and irradiated........
I cannot help if they didn't bother to teach geography/history when you were in high school(See, I can be an shiny happy person citing wiki sources too
) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_atoll
As far as the aclu, it was a joke. But still, I want to know who successfully argued that "Common comforts" included cable.
HA! Right on ma'man. I'm just trying to keep up with the conversation here.
I agree with you in that cable is definitely not something mandatory for "common comfort". My bet is it's something the prison system does to keep boredom and trouble down.
Boost_Crazy wrote:
They are going to prison because they commit crimes. That's not circular logic, that's cause and effect. Coincidently, many of the people that are in prison are there because they don't understand cause and effect.
This part seems to be oversimplified. I'd say there are a ton more reasons for going to prison than "they don't understand cause and effect."
Boost_Crazy wrote:
As for why they commit crimes, see my first post. I don't care. I don't give much credit to all of the bullE36 M3 excuses. If they worried half as much about going to prison as you do for them, they wouldn't be there.
I do agree with this however. Seems quite a few people end up in prison because they didn't think past the point of "I'm going to do this!"
Xceler8x wrote:
yamaha wrote:
In reply to Xceler8x:
My point was not that the Johnston Atoll was remote, it was more along the lines of its smaller than most small town airports and irradiated........
I cannot help if they didn't bother to teach geography/history when you were in high school(See, I can be an shiny happy person citing wiki sources too) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_atoll
As far as the aclu, it was a joke. But still, I want to know who successfully argued that "Common comforts" included cable.
HA! Right on ma'man. I'm just trying to keep up with the conversation here.
I agree with you in that cable is definitely not something mandatory for "common comfort". My bet is it's something the prison system does to keep boredom and trouble down.
Boredom and trouble are what you get when a population has idle time on their hands. Hard work and lots of it will solve that problem.
I kind of suspect it's too much idle time that leads many to a life of crime. Society has made "survival" a right and nearly effortless. When the impetus to work all day every day to keep food in your belly is removed you see the result "idle hands are the devils' playground"
