Our Prisons Are Crowded Because We Have A Lot of Criminals

Our Prisons Are Crowded Because We  Have A Lot of Criminals - nationalreview.com

Excerpt from this article:

"So when the public hears about somebody who is facing a mandatory minimum, what’s often left unreported is that it isn’t the offender’s first rodeo. By definition, they are dealers, not simple possessors, moving significant quantities, and either have a serious criminal history or are leaders or organizers of criminal groups."

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We do have a lot of criminals in America, but some of the worst ones are not in prison! In fact, many of the worst criminals are the politicians who make the laws in the first place. Constitutional scholar and talk show host Mark Levin has said:

"You should view these politicians with the deepest contempt you can possibly imagine.  What they are doing to this country, what they are doing to our finances - there is not a criminal in any federal prison, state prison, city or county jail with respect to financial crimes of any sort who collectively could have done the kind of damage that Barack Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and yes, willing, timid, gutless Republicans have done to this country! To your future, to your children and your grandchildren. What they are doing is with malice and with forethought." (emphasis mine) (source)

The following is a poem about law and justice:

"As a young lawyer from the books that I'd read

I thought justice and law were the same.

But I soon put such juvenile thoughts from my head

And I studied the rules of the game." 

(Author unknown)
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Recommended reading:
'

Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, by Peter Schweizer

Jeb and the Bush Crime Family: The Inside Story of an American Dynasty, by Roger Stone 

Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last 50 Years, by Russ Baker

And my post:

Drug Lord 'El Chapo' Guzman Reading Rick Warren's 'Purpose Driven Life' in Prison Cell

Government Cages and the Criminals In Charge

Government Cages, and the Criminals In Charge - lewrockwell.com

"...America’s system of mass incarceration, in which we today imprison 25 percent of all the world’s prisoners although Americans are only 5 percent of the global population...most prisoners are poor and never had adequate legal defense...people of color in our urban 'internal colonies' are worth nothing on the streets but, in cages, each generates $40,000 to $50,000 a year for corporations"

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The following quote comes from a small newsletter called Justice Matters (fall issue, 2004):

"According to information provided by the State of Washington, more than 90% of felony defendants were indigent at the time of there arrest."

Recommended reading (my posts)

Orange Is The New Black
Psychology Test For Today: Pick The One That Doesn't Fit

Recommended movie:

The Shawshank Redemption

Psychology Test For Today: Pick The One That Doesn't Fit

When you were in school, did your teacher ever have you do a test where you had to look at a group of  things, such as numbers or shapes, and pick out which one in the group did not fit with the rest? Below are three recent news stories. See if you can pick out the one that doesn't fit!

A. America: Man 'Assaults' Pregnant Wife With McChicken Sandwich, Gets Gun Permit Confiscated - truthstreammedia.com

B.  Man Faces Life In Prison... For Swearing - newser.com

C. Aiming For Two Militant Leaders In Pakistan, US Drone Pilots Killed 233 People, Including 83 Children - thedailysheeple.com

(If you picked C, you get to stay after class and clean the erasers, as Tom Lehrer says in New Math).

What's It Like to Visit Rikers?

What's It Like to Visit Rikers? - newser.com

Excerpt from this article:

"News that Rikers Island prison is investigating the alleged smuggling of drugs and weapons by guards prompts Dateline producer Dan Slepian to recount his first visit to the facility in the course of his work. Think every airport security or bank line you've ever been in, then multiply by a factor of 10 or so."
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Recommended reading:

Orange is the New Black

San Fransicso Bans Asking About Job Applicants Criminal History

San Fransicso Bans Asking About Job Applicants Criminal History - dailycaller.com

Excerpt from this article:

"In August, employers in San Francisco will be forbidden to ask prospective employees about much of their criminal history... The ban is part of the city’s new “Ban the Box” ordinance, which limits individuals in charge of hiring from inquiring about the following during the early stages of the application process: ...Convictions that are more than 7 years old ..."
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Recommended reading:

65 Million "Need Not Apply"

How A Model Prison Became America's Scariest

How A Model Prison Became America's Scariest - newser.com

Excerpt from this article:

"BOP [Bureau of Prisons] officials have claimed that the very existence of a place like Lewisburg makes the rest of the federal prison system safer. But even if this is true, purchasing safety for the many by brutalizing a few is a devil’s bargain...represents a blunt, cynical answer to the question of what to do with the federal system’s most troublesome inmates: send them to a place that is so utterly horrible that, by the time they transfer out, they will do anything not to be sent back."

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If I understand correctly this is what this writer is saying: "isolating troublemakers" in prison may make "the rest of the ... prisons safer," but it is "a devil's bargain" ... "unworthy of a civilized nation." I may be wrong, but I think that is what this author is trying to say.


If it is, I totally disagree! I think prisoners should be segregated - not according to race. That's stupid! But according to their conduct while they are in prison! I think the majority of men and women who fill America's prisons just want to quitly do their time, pay their debt to society, and get back to their families and their jobs and their place as good American citizens.

But there is a small minority in prison who can be labled as "trouble makers." These are people who have little or no remorse for thier crime, and little intention of changing their criminal behavior if and when they get out.

To give you an illustration of who these "troublemakers" are, take a look at the recent fad among teens called "The Knockout Game", also known as "Point em out, knock em out." In this growing fad strangers  (sometimes elderly men and young women!) are targeted at random and a person will sneak up on them and try to knock them out with one punch.

If a person continues this type of behavior - after they have been arrested, tried and convicted by the courts, and sent to prison - then I think it is safe to call them a troublemaker. And troublemakers in prison should be allowed to do their time with other troublemakers, and let those inmates who want to better themselves (by following the rules, getting their GED and taking vocational classes and programs) do so without worrying whether they are going to be the target of a prison version of the Knockout Game!

I'm convinced that most people in prison can - and should - be rehabilitated and released back into society. Prisons serve two major functions in society: It either convinces a convict to give up a life of crime so they never go back to prison. Or - for those who won't be convinced - it keeps them off the streets. Ann Coulter has written in one of her books:

"Of course prison works. It keeps people who commit crimes off the streets because they are in prison. Let's run the numbers. The recidivism rate of armed robbers behind bars is, hmmmm, looks like zero percent!"

Recommended reading (my posts):

We Need to be better than the people we prosecute
The Knockout Game