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Rights and Liberties

America Has Become Incarceration Nation

By Marc Mauer, TomPaine.com. Posted December 22, 2006.


The United States has now become the world leader in its rate of incarceration, locking up its citizens at 5-8 times the rate of other industrialized nations.
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Two remarkable developments in Washington in the past week highlight the extent to which the United States has become the land of mass incarceration.

First, the Supreme Court denied the appeal of Weldon Angelos for a first-time drug offense. Angelos was a 24-year-old Utah music producer with no prior convictions when he was convicted of three sales of marijuana in 2004. During these sales he possessed a gun, though there were no allegations that he ever used or threatened to use it. Under federal mandatory sentencing laws, the judge was required to sentence Angelos to five years on the first offense and 25 years each for the two subsequent offenses, for a total of 55 years in prison. In imposing sentence, Judge Paul Cassell, a leading conservative jurist, decried the sentencing policy as "unjust, cruel, and even irrational."

The Angelos decision came on the heels of a Bureau of Justice Statistics report finding that there are now a record 2.2 million Americans incarcerated in the nation's prisons and jails. These figures represent the continuation of a "race to incarcerate" that has been raging since 1972. With a 500 percent increase in the number of people in prison since then, the United States has now become the world leader in its rate of incarceration, locking up its citizens at 5-8 times the rate of other industrialized nations. The strict punishment meted out in the Angelos case and thousands of others explain much of the rapid increase in the prison population.

The composition of the prison population reflects the socioeconomic inequalities in society. Sixty percent of the prison population is African American and Latino, and if current trends continue, one of every three black males and one of every six Latino males born today can expect to go to prison at some point in his lifetime. The overall rates for women are lower, but the racial and ethnic disparities are similar and the growth rate of women's incarceration is nearly double that of men over the past two decades.

While the United States has a higher rate of violent crime than comparable nations, the substantial prison buildup since 1980 has resulted from changes in policy, not changes in crime. The "get tough" movement, which embraced initiatives designed to send more people to prison and to keep them for longer periods of time, contributed to massive prison construction and a corrections budget now totaling $60 billion annually. These policy changes included mandatory sentences that restrict judicial discretion while imposing "one size fits all" penalties, "three strikes and you're out" laws that allow life terms upon a third felony conviction, and the "war on drugs."

Drug policies have been responsible for a disproportionate share of the rise in the inmate population, with the 40,000 drug offenders in prison or jail in 1980 increasing to a half million today. A substantial body of research has documented that these laws have had virtually no effect on the drug trade, as measured by price or availability of drugs. Most of the drug offenders in prison are not the "kingpins" of the drug trade. Indeed, the low-level sellers who are incarcerated are rapidly replaced on the streets by others seeking economic gain.

While crime rates have been declining nationally for a decade, research to date demonstrates that expanded incarceration has, at best, been responsible for only a quarter of this decline. Other factors that played a key role include a strong economy in the 1990s that provided employment opportunities for low-skill workers, a marked decline in crack cocaine use and its associated violence by the early 1990s, and strategic community policing. New York City, which experienced a two-thirds reduction in homicides from 1990 to 2002, did so despite a one-third decline in its jail population during that period. And conversely, while Idaho led the nation with an astonishing 174 percent rise in its prison population, it nevertheless experienced a 14 percent rise in crime.


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Marc Mauer is the executive director of The Sentencing Project and the author of "Race to Incarcerate" and co-editor of "Invisible Punishment" (both from The New Press).

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jail
Posted by: rsaxto on Dec 22, 2006 12:48 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The prime reason there are so many people in jail in the USA is that most of the people who write our laws are narrowminded moronic racists.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: jail Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: jail Posted by: rotorooter
» RE: jail Posted by: meddlehead
» RE: jail Posted by: ncg96773
» RE: The Great White Pschyochurch Posted by: psychochurch
» RE: The Great White Pschyochurch Posted by: insulaparadigm
Good news
Posted by: kepstein7777 on Dec 22, 2006 3:19 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
At the rate we're going, everyone will be in jail by the year 2031.

So for those who think Bush should go to jail for war crimes, all you have to do now is wait.

Bad Monkey! No banana!

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Stupid laws
Posted by: chutzpah on Dec 22, 2006 3:31 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why do we accept these stupid laws? Locking a man behind bars for 3-5 years for smoking a JOINT, convicting kids as adults, locking up junkies, mandatory sentencing, three strikes, and denying convicts who have done their time the right to vote. Everyone talks about the plight of the black man, but forgetting that the stupid laws that send them to jail also ensures that they never get jobs or student loans due to a past conviction.
This is a country that rarely give minorities a second chance. If i ever go to jail in this country, once i'm out, i'll pack my bags and leave the country for good.

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» RE: Stupid laws Posted by: edith
» RE: Stupid laws Posted by: ncg96773
» Stupid laws work against victims! Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Illegality of drugs causes Posted by: Conservasaurus
Why Is Felons' Right to Vote a Priority?
Posted by: edith on Dec 22, 2006 4:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm always a little bemused by opponents of mandatory sentencing and crack laws who bring up some valid issues about sentencing disparities and the obvious failure of incarcertion to prevent recidivism. These well-meaning folk then say, 'And the felons can't vote!"

I would agree that there is probably no correlation between commission of a crime and civic knowledge (George W. Bush comes to mind) but does anyone think voting is #1 on a prisoner's mind? Let's see if we can improve job training and education in our jails (while providing better physical safety to prisoners, for without security no one will focus on studies!).

But voting? I see the point, but unless politicians thinks they are losing votes over the "street" bloc of voters, I'm not sure why voting for felons would be a legislative priority. Most so called minorities live in congressional and legislative districts that are de facto one party areas, where Democrats are elected who are usually "liberal" and sympathetic to social welfare programs.

Let's educate better and keep jobs in the USA: those are practical steps that can provide people with incentives to stay out of gangs and out of jail.

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» Plea bargains remove undesirable voters Posted by: Bic Pentameter
» RE: Why Is Felons' Right to Vote a Priority? Posted by: anonymous black writer
It's simple...
Posted by: adp3d on Dec 22, 2006 4:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...as more prison systems privatize, more private prison corporations lobby congress for tougher laws, of course helping to fill campaign coffers, leading to more "offenders" so that profits will rise...
What we need to do is at the ballot box decide that prisons are too costly, stand up to the "weak on crime" mantra and put the money into school systems where it will do the most good.

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"Free Marketeer" Solution
Posted by: talkville on Dec 22, 2006 5:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There's now a 'prison industry' which must be maintained. Besides, sorted by class and color, this revolving door provides a database of profiles for present and future uses. Power and control ('management') is what it's all about. And best of all, as the endless police and law and order oriented programming on tv testifies, the best imprisonment is the imprisonment of each individual's mind. How else is a minority (suitably hierarchised by class and color) supposed to rule?

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Jail and prison have become almost socially acceptable.
Posted by: Sojourner on Dec 22, 2006 5:15 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
One of the consequences of putting people behind bars with such frequency is that the fear and the stigma of being behind bars has diminished.

Legislators have tried to cope with that by raising misdemeanors to felonies and by 25 years to life for 3 strikes--all of which make the law ridiculous.

One reason Alcohol Prohibition was ended in 1932 was that it made law enforcement ridiculous, because so many were breaking the law. Yes, we could have increased the penalties and built more jails. Instead, the law was repealed.

How much worse off are we for having legalized alcohol? Zip. Zero. Nada.

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Which country is the police state??
Posted by: alicelyman on Dec 22, 2006 5:30 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The USA's per capita incarceration rate is six times that of China's. The US prison population is larger than China's, and the USA has less than one quarter of China's population. True, China's prisons and labor camps house several thousand political prisoners, and we all know, of course, that the United States has none. In China's prisons, the authorities practice torture of prisoners; in US prisons torture and abuse, of course, never happens. China's labor camps and prisons produce "slave labor" goods that China exports. In prisons in many states in the USA, prisoners produce goods available for export--California's penal system even offers a glossy catalogue of its products to facilitate selection. China's prison system built on ideological principle is hideous enough. In the USA, we do it for money.

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» Who Executes More? Posted by: edith
» RE: Who Executes More? Posted by: talkville
» Holy crap Posted by: stormchilde1975
The Only Real Solution
Posted by: allUneedislove on Dec 22, 2006 5:58 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Reducing crime can only be done by increasing the economic well-being of everyone.

We have the money and other resources to do that. We have had them all along. We have been putting them in the military-industrial complex instead.

High crime rates and poverty are fixable.

Punishing people for being criminals just doesn't help.

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» RE: The Only Real Solution Posted by: Conservasaurus
Unicor!
Posted by: Louisa on Dec 22, 2006 6:24 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://www.unicor.gov/

Cheap labor. The cheapest since the German death camps.

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» Chump Change Prisoners Posted by: edith
» RE: Chump Change Prisoners Posted by: mmeetoilenoir
We're number 1!!! We're number 1!!!!
Posted by: DCostello on Dec 22, 2006 8:05 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Whoo hooo!!! Another #1 for America!!! One thing the home of the free and land of the brave is good at - locking its citizens up!!!! Whoo hooo!!!! It's a cure for our hunger problem, our lack of health care problem, a source of cheap labor. God bless America and it's for profit prison system!!!!

Ok, I'm going to go vomit now.

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Mike Gallagher Hates the First Amendment by Kurt Nimo
Posted by: rwa on Dec 22, 2006 8:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If talk radio host Mike Gallagher has his way, Matt Damon, Joy Behar, Keith Olbermann, and any number of dedicated or casual readers of this blog will be shipped off to a FEMA camp for the crime of exercising their once respected right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment. According to Gallagher, the above “traitors” should be incarcerated for the duration of the “war on terror,” promised to last a couple generations, possibly a hundred years or more. In other words, Gallagher is calling for life in prison for disagreeing with the unitary decider and his minions, such as Donald Rumsfeld, a malicious war criminal who would, during normal times, stand accused of murdering 650,000 Iraqis.

It seems Gallagher, the 6th most listened-to radio talk show host in the United States, currently tied with Neal Boortz, who tells his listeners Rep. Cynthia McKinney “looks like a ghetto slut,” at about 3,750,000 listeners, is clueless when it comes to natural rights, George Mason’s 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, the 1689 English Bill of Rights, and the bedrock philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, all increasingly under attack. Gallagher, and no shortage of other “conservatives,” in essence authoritarian thugs, including Newt Gingrich, who has called for the First Amendment be struck, lest the “terrorists” use the internet and attack us, are routinely provided with substantial airtime to push their fascistic ideas, especially over at the unitary decider network, Fox News, where the Führer Principle (Führerprinzip) is on display 24/7.

However, when you take a gander at history, you realize the act of rounding people up and slamming them in concentration camps here in America is nothing new or is it particularly surprising. 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were sent to concentration camps, thanks to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, and this was given the blessing of the Supreme Court in 1944 (as rounding up people at gunpoint is fine and dandy if there is a “pressing public necessity”). In fact, generally speaking, the bovine and easily frightened public support this sort of business, as they did when AG Palmer, under Woodrow Wilson, and his sidekick J. Edgar Hoover, rounded up 10,000 people, denied many of them due process, subjected hundreds to brutal interrogation methods (in other words, they were tortured), and deported thousands for the crime of disagreeing with the government, especially during a time of war, when disagreeing counts...

More recently, there was Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, designed specifically to detain large numbers of Americans. Rex 84, hooked up with Night Train 84, a worldwide military command post exercise, including the participation of CONUS (Continental U.S. Forces), was a pet project of the Joint Chiefs out of the Pentagon. Some of us recall a day in July, 1987, when the Miami Herald reported the war criminal and drug-runner Ollie North’s mention of Rex 84 during the Iran-Contra hearings. It was quickly swept under the rug and, according to the staid Wikipedia, was “hyperbolized it into a form of urban legend or conspiracy theory,” as the benevolent and kindly U.S. government would never do such a thing, Operation Northwoods not withstanding. Ollie, of course, is a celebrity now, with his very own Fox News television show, as crime, especially at the behest of the government, is on occasion rewarded...

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=699

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Prison INDUSTRY is subsidized by the War on Drugs
Posted by: YinRising on Dec 22, 2006 8:27 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
and the responses to two recent articles on alternet showed how well that "war" is going.

When citizens surrender their minds and bodies to the policies of the War on Drugs, they forfit their cognitive liberty and effectively imprison their consciousness.

Ending the war on drugs would free up prison space for violent offenders and allow leo's to focus on other things besides people smoking some refer.

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Irrational Economy..Prison Nation
Posted by: picket on Dec 22, 2006 8:32 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
12/05 according to the US Dept of Labor there were 7.4 million unemployed nationwide. Add 2.2 million incarcerated equals 9.2 million. "US prisons are caging surplus workers whose labor the American economy increasingly does not need." ......info from 12/3/06 .."US Prison Nation"...Seth Sandronsky
Not sure if this was posted on AlterNet.
To all those Repub and Dems making tons of $$$$$$$$$$ offshore...thank you...you are true patriots...NOT.
Some that post here just want to kill off the low level, non violent, will not better themselves, work for $5.15 "so called" criminal... Merry Christmas Corporate American.

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Private Prisons
Posted by: Krain61 on Dec 22, 2006 9:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Private Prisons: There owed and operated just as a any other company..What do companies do? They make money?These companies have stock holders who might very well be the Judge you go in front of are the Cheif of Police in the Town you got in trouble in..Could be the Mayor..But never the less they want the beds all filled up which means each year they contract with the Goverment they can ask for more space which is more money coming in and Profits..In Ohio it cost approx $36,000.00 per person in prison..I'm still wondering how they justify that amount since the the prison inmates eat very low cost food and it's bought in bulk..In Ohio one prison the inmates eat almost daily turkey which is bought from Gov.Tafts brother..And as long as we elect these crooks this will continue in every state..Someones relative is making money from our families that get railroaded on bullshit laws.
When the courts slow down on one type of crime they make a new law to bring in more revenue..Take drugs! They don't want that stopped al together because if you work in Narcotics and there is no drugs busts then your out of work

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Capitalism Will Turn US Into A Prison For All
Posted by: malcolmartin on Dec 22, 2006 11:28 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Profits are to capitalism what oxygen is to people and other living things. So while U.S. oil companies have realized world record profits every quarter for the past several years, Big Oil can’t hold it's breath and survive for long. The fact is, unless they make ever-greater profit into the indefinite future ExxonMobil and Chevron will whither and die. That is why, against every instinct toward justice, the oil company’s servants in the Congress reject a windfall profits tax, have given away billions of dollars of royalty rights revenues, and will eventually give up drilling rights prohibitions on the Gulf Coast and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Under a capitalist economy nothing can be allowed to stand before greater profits. Right now the trappings of our bourgeois democracy are a brake on profits and so they are being shredded. The Constitution and its Bill of Rights are being rendered meaningless by presidential signing statements and the theory of the unitary executive, extraordinary rendition, government surveillance programs and the like. Profit seeking is the reason for our wars for resources in Iraq and elsewhere, skyrocketing commodities prices and the raft of mega-mergers.

The exploding prison population is another feature of our economic system's end times. There is only so much technology can boost production or wages can be depressed until a slave labor system must be created. Even at that, capitalism will then stare into the eyes of its fatal contradiction. Slaves cannot buy the products they produce.

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NEW BOOK ABOUT THE CRISIS LEVEL OF BLACK MEN IN PRISON
Posted by: minging on Dec 22, 2006 11:40 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
NEW BOOK ABOUT CRISIS LEVEL OF BLACK MEN IN PRISON!!!!


Get the book "WHY ARE SO MANY BLACK MEN IN PRISON? A Comprehensive Account Of How And Why The Prison Industry Has Become A Predatory Entity In The Lives Of African-American Men, And How Mass Targeting, Criminalization, And Incarceration Of Black Male Youth Has Gone Toward Creating The Largest Prison System In The World." by Demico Boothe AT WWW.BLACKMENINPRISON.COM , WWW.AMAZON.COM , or WWW.BARNESANDNOBLE.COM!!!


We are not a weak people. We will not allow traps to be set or hostile action, covert or overt, to be taken against us without proper response, and if necessary, proper retaliation. But we do need to be RE-EDUCATED because for so long we have been MIS-EDUCATED.

W.E.B. DuBois

I urge all conscious and truly intelligent Black persons to not only read but study this book. THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IS BEING USED AS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION AGAINST AFRICAN AMERICANS. The United States has the largest prison system in the world because of the number of Black men behind bars. This subject should be the focus of every Black politician that says they have the Black community's best interest at heart. Just a few facts:

* There are nearly 3 times as many Black men in prison in the U.S. than there are in college.

* 85% of African-American households are headed by single females, and Black females are the most unmarried sector of the American populace.

* The U.S. has more Black men in prison out of only 10.4 million Black men in its populace than China has Chinese men in its prisons out of nearly 300 million men in its populace.

* Many American prisons are privately held and traded on the stock market, almost like a modern day slave trade.

* Once a person gets a felony on his or her record in the U.S., he is by characteristic definition no longer considered a full citizen.

* A young Black male born today has a greater chance of going to prison than of holding any other occupation in life.

The list of horrendous and crisis level facts go on and on and are greatly expounded on in this book. WE ARE IN TROUBLE AS A RACE AND SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE OR 100 YEARS FROM NOW WE WILL BE IN NEAR EXTINCTION IN THIS GREAT COUNTRY THAT OUR FOREFATHERS SUFFERED THROUGH SLAVERY AND OPPRESSION AND DIED IN. GO TO WWW.BLACKMENINPRISON.COM AND GET THE BOOK. UNDERSTAND WHAT THE NEW MODERN DAY SLAVE TRADE IS ALL ABOUT. THIS BOOK IS GOING TO REVEAL THINGS THAT THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO KEEP QUIET.

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» The beat made me do it. Posted by: edith
» RE: The beat made me do it. Posted by: gaiaschild94
» The only white liberal in the room Posted by: gaiaschild94
» RE: The beat made me do it. Posted by: anonymous black writer
Where are the libertarians when you need them on issues such as these?
Posted by: Jason Jordan on Dec 22, 2006 1:13 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Never mind, civil libertarians have been OSTRACIZED by the Libertarian Party. I guess the party would much rather focus on getting greedy rather than taking their principles seriously. No wonder the Libertarian Party is awfully silent even as Corporate America gets to be the BIGGEST WELFARE shenanigan becoming overdependent on government all the while attacking the poor and middle class as somehow overdependent even for the pittance they get from government. Shame on the Libertarian Party for giving priority to fighting for the wealthy elite rather than fighting to cut down CONCENTRATION PRISON CAMPS !

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It's simpler than all this.
Posted by: Ian MacLeod on Dec 22, 2006 1:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
First, the more divided we are as a people, the easier we are to manipulate. Bigotry works just for for social divison. So does fear, so they do all they can to teach us to fear each other. Second, there's the profit motive: Shortly, you'll see a bill that makes using any prisoners as slave labor legal. The prison industry is already great at keeping Dems out of polling places, and the prison industry is VERY profitable.

It's as simple as that.

Ian

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109th Congress 2nd Session, H.R. 4752, Feb.14, 2006
Posted by: mite on Dec 22, 2006 1:19 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
is an amendment to the Patriot Act (New Constitution), Military Commissions Act, and Executive Order 11051. It is a Bill to provide for the common defense by requiring ALL persons in `The North American Union' the state of U.S., including women, between the ages of 18-42 to perform a period of military service or a period of CIVILIAN service in furtherence of the NATIONAL defense and Homeland security, and OTHER purposes. Introduced by a Mr. Rangel.

If anyone wants to know the truth about this go to the following WEB sites. www.lawfulpath.com www.devvy.com
www.freedomtofascism.com www.givemeliberty.org

If you think tax dollars pay for the prison system your in for a big surprise. Taxes ONLY pay the interest on our debt, everyday about $3 Billion on an out standing DEBT of more then $10 Trillion owed to the International Bankers.

Did you know that our Treasury according to the GAO is missing more then 2800 Metric Tons of Gold?

And you wonder why they want to put more people in Prison?
Because these Evil Tyrants want to exterminate-inprison more then 90% of the worlds population.

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abdullahi
Posted by: abdullahiedward on Dec 22, 2006 1:41 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When you take into consideration all the people in prison or in jail, add them to the number out on bail and those awaiting trial and those on remand and those on parole and the various other forms of human incarceration practiced in the good ole u s of a you'll end up with a figure that ranks our prison population higher than the populations of 120 entire countries. All of these countries would be pretty damn foolish to think that the u s of a could meaningfully advise them on ANYTHING except how NOT to run a country!

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Ignorance Creates No Justice
Posted by: edhowes on Dec 22, 2006 1:44 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Any society which hires a professional legislature is acting upon the assumption law is good and one can never have too much. Such a society is then miseducated as mentioned above to believe criminal governments protect them from those lowly street criminals - the very worst kind, of course. But the injustice system is a growth industry doing more than any government agency to promote the cancerous growth we call government.

A judge who allows a legislature to restrict his authority has no honor. A nation of laws has the jury pronounce sentence and the legislature has no authority over juries. A nation of men claiming to be a nation of laws dictates to both judge and jury, in that order. But miseducated, non citizen juries take instructions from judges and do not have a clue about biblical, common, corporate, natural, admiralty, statute or constitutional law. That is, there is no such thing as a qualified jury of peers in America or any other Western nation I can think of. The ignorant dunces, created to be exactly as they are by the economic power, solve the problem by calling their slavery freedom, Black, White, Brown, Yellow or Red.

Nor is any thought ever given to the morality of caging a person as a valid or constructive punishment, with the result prisoners are released with improved criminal skills and scores to settle, not unlike what we see right now in Iraq. Hence the people demand more law to return these state created monsters to their cages.

Where is the justice in destroying a person's family and their economic support? The people cannot afford the injustice system but that fact is forever hidden from them and they will turn out to vote for ever increasing law and order, so they might be secure in their slavery. They are happy prisoners outside the concentration camps and will do anything it takes to keep it that way.

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By the way, Bush pardons 16 drug traffickers while saying no to 2 border patrol agents.
Posted by: Jason Jordan on Dec 22, 2006 3:20 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Tells you how the so-called "war on drugs" goes, eh?

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Devil Empire
Posted by: ng1944 on Dec 22, 2006 3:51 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
established with the help of
Wall Street Zionists

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» RE: Devil Empire Posted by: aonghus36
A better example?
Posted by: YogiBear on Dec 22, 2006 8:40 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I agree with virtually everything Mauer says, but I think a better example could have been used. If I'm not mistaken, committing a crime -- any crime -- while in possession of a firearm is a federal offense. If said firearm is unregistered it's doubly-serious. For eveyone like this presumably peaceable guy, there's probably someone who doesn't think twice about brandishing (or using) his gun to threaten others. I'm against drug laws entirely, and I'm pro-2nd ammendment. But laws prohibiting using a firearm during the commission of a crime are a good idea.

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Jail cell, sand dunes. What's the difference?
Posted by: monkeywrench on Dec 22, 2006 9:23 PM   
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We have to lock 'em up; there are no jobs, so otherwise, they'll get into trouble. It's just part of Bush's preemptive strategy (stragedy?). After all, it's worked really well in Iraq, hasn't it?

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Incarceration Nation
Posted by: pfm on Dec 26, 2006 9:14 AM   
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Until "we" collectively choose to recognize the inequity and dishonesty in our penal system we will continue these stupid so-called WAR on drugs, WAR on terrorism, WAR on poverty and blightly turn out heads to how "we" are being blindsided.

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Jail for drugs = bad, jail for violence = GOOD
Posted by: Jordon on Dec 27, 2006 10:43 AM   
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High incarceration rates always lead to lower crime rates. The problem is, they do not fix the socioeconomic causes of the crime. Also, many of the "crimes" which lead to incarceration, are not crimes at all. Such as the possession of marijuana, or other less serious drugs. This however does not take away from the fact that high prison sentences and incarceration rates do deter violent crimes. When the crime rates started to plunge in the early 90s, the real reason was an increase of police officers, and prisoners. There is a direct correlation between the decrease in mandatory prison sentences in the 1960s, and the subsequent increase in crime rates. Criminals had no incentive to "clean up their act". This does not mean that rehabilitation or economic reform should be ignored, but a high prison population is not always a bad thing. So long as not all the prisoners are in there just because they smoke pot.

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» RE: Jail for drugs = bad, jail for violence = GOOD Posted by: anonymous black writer
anonymous
Posted by: lightmind on Dec 27, 2006 11:14 AM   
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Ah-ha. The "Prison Industry". What a telling way to define the american Justice system. Industry- Commercial production and sale of goods. Everything must be industrialized, for profit you know. Otherwise what would be the reason?

Everything must be industrialized. Money, the root of Evil? Mammon wins, Mankind loses. Except for the lucky few. Even so, their time is short and they know it. Madness ensues.

What a perverted World we live in.

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Watch for the day...
Posted by: Nigelthebriton on Dec 27, 2006 12:52 PM   
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...when too many inmates see that they have nothing left to lose but their chains. Another Attica is coming!

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