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)
'

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

The Daily Spurgeon for Friday, May 6, 2016

Quotes by Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 - 1892)

"It is related of John Wesley that, preaching to an audience of courtiers and noblemen, he used the 'generation of vipers' text, and flung denunciations right and left. 'That sermon should have been preached at Newgate [prison],' said the displeased courtier to Wesley on passing out. 'No,' said the fearless apostle, 'my text there would have been, 'Behold, the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.'"  - Spurgeon's Sermon Notes

Further recommended reading & listening:

The Best of The Daily Spurgeon

The Conversion of Charles Spurgeon [audio]

The Forgotten Spurgeon, by Iain Murray

A Defense of Calvinism - by Charles Spurgeon

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

Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black - newser.com

Excerpt from this article:

"We fruitlessly overstuff our prisons in America, and OITNB proves that 'we don't care to tell a story that will empty them again.'"
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There are too many people in America's prisons. But what is worse, is there are way too many people - especially in the Washington D.C. and Hollywood - who need to go to prison - and stay there!

Recommended reading (my posts)

Should Obama Grant More Pardons?
What if President Obama Were Impeached and Sent to Prison?
Prison Inc. The Secret Industry
Pardon Me? Obama, Bill Ayers, and Crack Cocaine
Bill Clinton and the Rape That Won't Go Away

America's Prisoners Cost You $80 Billion a Year

America's Prisoners Cost You $260 a Year - newser.com

"A new report from a branch of the Brookings Institution notes that the US spent $80 billion on incarceration in 2010, an expense that translates into each American paying $260 per year to house our criminals. That's up from $77 per US resident in 1980, reports CBS News. With violent crime rates down, what's behind the increase?"
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"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." - unknown

There are people who need to be in prison - forever! (like the one Ann Coulter talks about in Lockett & Load). But there are many many more that could - and I believe should - be safely transitioned back into society. Drug offenders are just one category of prisoners that I believe could be released early. I'm not talking about letting drug dealers out early - no, throw the book at them. But the addict whose only crime is that he or she chose to get addicted to heroin or cocaine rather than prescription drugs doesn't need to be in prison!

Ann Coulter says 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 for armed robbers behind bars is...hmmm, looks like zero percent!" (Source: One of Ann coulter's books!).

While I often agree with Ann Coulter, I think we part company here. The problem with the American judicial system (which still may be the best in the world!) is that it favors those with money and resources. If that were not the case, our President would have been locked up long ago (See: 76 Times Obama's White House Ilegally and Unethically Abused Its Power, as Documented by Sen. Ted Cruz, Should Obama Grant More Pardons?, & Bill Clinton and the Rape that won't Go Away).

Recommended reading:

Should Obama Grant More Pardons? (my post)
Pardon Me? Obama, Bill Ayers, and Crack Cocaine - wnd.com
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in the Crosshairs (my post)
High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton, by Ann Coulter

The Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits from Crime, by Joel Dyer
Mean Justice: A True Account of a Town's Terror, A Prosecutor's Power, and a Betrayal of Innocence, by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Edward Hume
Pat Boone is a Wanted Man!
The World's Biggest Crooks! - lewrockwell.com
Prisonfellowship.org

Prison Inc. The Secret Industry

Prison Inc. The Secret Industry - online-paralegal-degree.org

Excerpt from this article:

"Between 1990 and 2010, the number of privately operated prisons in the US increased 1600%"
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Recommended reading:

Three Felonies a Day: How the Fed Targets the Innocent

How 2 Killers Changed America's Prisons Forever

How 2 Killers Changed America's Prisons Forever -

Excerpt from this article:

"On Oct. 22, 1983, inmates aligned with the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang murdered two corrections officers at the United States Penitentiary near Marion, Ill. The reverberations from those killings are still being felt in the American prison system. The murders sent Marion into lockdown for 23 years, ushered in the era of the modern Supermax prison, and normalized the chilling idea that the only rational way to deal with violent or notorious prisoners is to lock them up in small, isolated cells and throw away the key."

Best selling author Ann Coulter has written:

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

and:

"'[The death penalty is]...a primitive act of retribution' ... What is primitive about being arraigned, formally charged, tried, convicted by a jury, having that conviction upheld on appeal, and then being executed in a manner far gentler than their victims?...('Okay, it will only sting for a minute, Mr. Bundy!')"

There are human rights violations that go on in America's prisons, but many of them are committed by the inmates themselves. Supermax prisons don't just protect society from dangerous convicts. They also protect the prison staff and the inmates themselves from many of these same 'dangerous convicts.'

But what is really wrong with America's prison system is that it unfairly targets the poor. Yes, there are the Martha Stewarts who go to prison. But for the most part, people don't go to prison for their crime as much as for their economic standing in society.  One of the "Super-Lawyers" O. J. Simpson hired to defend him was Robert Shapiro. Here is some of Mr. Shapiro's advice to Simpson early on in his case:
 
"You have to hire the best investigators, criminologists, forensic people right now, Shapiro said. You must bring them in immediately and get an independent review of the evidence. The longer you wait, the more the evidence will be disturbed. Shapiro added that he always treated experts well. First class travel, top hotels, the best restaurants. Some lawyers try to economize with tourist class and cheap hotels. That doesn't buy loyalty." Page 29 of  American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense).

I agree that America locks up far too many people. Prisons should be reserved for the worst of the worst of the worst of society. The only people who should ever go to prison are the ones who shake their fists at society and shout: "I will not obey your laws!" Of course, if that were the standard for filling our prisons, we would need to elect some more politicians - starting with the Executive branch on down! Constitutional scholar Mark Levin 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 Bible says:

"And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment." - Ezra 7:26

And:

"For he shall have judgment without mercy who has shown no mercy." - James 2:13