Bonecrusher

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I'm hoping to get a few more serious discussions going on here and Webrats. I used to be fairly involved in another forum with numerous political/social discussions. I also devoted a little time and energy for some time to a blog I have on Myspace. Basically I'm going to copy over a couple of my blogs and see what sort of reaction or discussion they create. If it goes well then I will be writing on here more and hoping to get some of you invovled in debate.

Like most gossip minded Americans one of the first pages I read in my local paper each day is the Crime Report. It of course details all of the misdemenors and felonies committed by your fellow community citizens. This morning as I was reading this section I came across a name I'd seen many times. I started thinking...how can this guy be out of jail again? He's a convicted sex offender. Since his release he's been arrested for DWI, for failing to register, for loitering in the children's section at the local library, for possession of a control substance, and for shoplifting. But guess what? He's out on bail. That reminded me of this blog entry on Crime and Punishment. Maybe some of you are former residents of the justice system. Maybe some of you have been affected by one of these felons. Read on...if you hate it I understand...trash me and tell me why...

Our justice system is an utter failure. We don’t rehabilitate, we don’t really punish. We just provide a roof, a bed, and 3 squares a day along with plenty of recreation, education, health care and more. And that’s only for the worst of the worst criminals and any others your local prison might have room for. Many of the clowns are just recycled and sent right back into society thanks to overcrowding. Sure they’ll be back soon but they’ll have a good time earning street cred and livin’ the life until the Po Po catches them again. Then it’s free room and board and hanging with their buddies for a nice little stint in the joint.

The meth-heads and manufacturers of meth and many other drug dealers get a slap on the wrist in most cases and sent back out to their local discount store or street corner to reload on supplies. Spousal abusers and child abusers get a psychiatric evaluation, some probation, a fine, and a follow up check up which usually goes by forgotten. Most of those offenders are sent right back to the home with the family whom they committed crimes against.

Car thieves, vandals, first time robbers, get a few months before being put back out on the street with a record that won’t allow them to ever attain a real good job again. So of course, without any other source of income and knowing the punishment is light they turn right back to crime. The gang-bangers earn street cred this way and know that prison life ain’t so bad, especially when they get out with a few symbolic bars on their chest for time served.

A drunk driver or inebriated drivers (attempted murderers in my eyes) get by with little or no punishment. They may get a month or two in prision but generally it's probation. Unless they kill someone then Vehicular Manslaughter carries a penalty of less than ten years in most states. A drunk almost never dies in the accident though they'll kill someone leaving a family with a father or mother or a parent without a child. Those victims suffer for life while the offender eventually moves on.

A rapist serves some time, but not enough considering they’ve dismantled someone’s life forever. A child will never be the same after falling victim to one of these sick people. The offender will most likely go on to commit the crimes again.

The whole problem comes down to the fact that we’re running out of room in our prisons. Obviously the punishment isn’t bad enough or people wouldn’t be clamoring to get in there so bad….but just what if we quit spending around $30,000 a year on inmates and spent oh say….3 or 4 grand at the most? Pay the prison staff more, or hire a bunch of newly legalized immigrants to do the job, and build a ton of new hardcore prisons. I’m sure a fraction of the newly legalized immigrants could build a few dozen prisons in a matter of months. Then lock folks up and throw away the key until the maximum sentence is served. Even murderers get out with time served right now. Why should they get a life at all if they took one away? I say no life for them, but since most states don’t allow capital punishment I say life in prison without parole. And make that solitary confinement because you need to feel the emptiness and loneliness that your victim’s family members feel each day.

Now I don’t have anything bad to say about our nation’s police officers, detectives, and all that….because I think they are doing their jobs to the best of their ability. But many in our communities make less than the $30,000 a year it takes to house one inmate. These men and women are putting their lives on the line to catch these criminals and lock them up initially. It is without a doubt our liberal judges and a lax punishment system that is to blame. It’s poorly used tax money and dumbocrats thinking these inmates should have civil rights and allowing an excessive amount of money to be spent on things prisoners don’t need. Libraries, televisions, exercise equipment, etc. There is no reason it should cost over $30,000 to house an inmate for a year when some entire families don’t even have that much to get through the same year.

I think that we have some ultra overhaul of our criminal punishment system. We have the funds to build more prisons. We have the funds to house inmates longer. We have the funds and ability to impose harsher penalties for crimes. We just have to take away money from the prisons’ recreation programs, from their meal plans, from their education for prisoners serving life sentences, from every non necessity for life type thing. Give them air to breathe, the same cheap meals we send our soldiers, and a nice concrete floor to sleep on….think of where our soldiers sleep. Why should a prisoner sleep any better? Think of the life many of their victims have or their victims’ families. Why should the criminal have a life at all much less one of security with food, blankets, and other luxuries?

I detest criminals and I think they should have no rights or luxuries whatsoever. They gave those things up when they committed the crime. We’re wasting money left and right catering to these fools when we should be using it to punish them. Sure they can’t see their families and they’re locked up in the same area….but they’re safe from dangers of the outside world, they don’t have to worry about money, or work, and they’re alive which is more than what most of the victims of their crimes have.

I’m all for the eye for an eye type punishment but in this country we’d never get away with it….much like criminals in other countries never gets away with a crime….. Hmmmmmmmm….maybe those barbarians are right about at least one thing….how to handle a criminal.

Krasch

We'd get away with an eye for an eye as soon as society decided that was appropriate punishment I would think. As it is, too many feel that's too inhumane.

Personally, I'm more concerned with being humane to the victim's rights than the criminal's but that's just me.

cm8

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, gotta think on that one, give me a few days and I'll get back you ya, I wanna get some facts. LOL

Bonecrusher

Facts are for legitimate journalist.

This is a web forum. Posters usually make up their own facts.