The land of the free

[Slizor]

Free to be incarcarated that is.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r188.pdf

[JudgeDredd]

gee, i thought the US only cracked teh 2 million mark recently, but those figures show it happened 2 years ago (even before 9-11) which makes me think that by now it must be over 2.5M, meaning that 1% of Americans are incarcerated.

That's price of freedom i guess!? :D

[FUNKbrs]

this proves only one thing:

For a free country, there are too many things you are not free to do.

[Commander-K25]

Here's a thought, maybe this simply means there are plenty of criminals and nothing more.

[FUNKbrs]

At 5/19/03 11:31 PM, Commander-K25 wrote: Here's a thought, maybe this simply means there are plenty of criminals and nothing more.

But then the question arises: Why do we have more per capita than everyone else? What are they doing to control crime that we arent/are doing wrong? Or are we just better at catching the criminals?

[Commander-K25]

At 5/19/03 11:48 PM, FUNKbrs wrote: But then the question arises: Why do we have more per capita than everyone else? What are they doing to control crime that we arent/are doing wrong? Or are we just better at catching the criminals?

I think we have stricter laws (not necessarily a bad thing), longer sentences and better law enforcement.

[Anarchy-Balsac]

i hate to admit it, but i somewhat agree with you this time. we do have far too many laws in this country, well over 1 million people are being held on drug charges alone, it's just rediculus. we need to cut out laws on victimless crimes and get rid of the language police, until we do we won't be as free as we need to be

[Shih]

Look the laws on drugs exist for a reason. Allowing things such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy to be legal is dangerous. And yes weed does lead to heavier drug use, not for everyone but for enough people that it's a problem.

[JMHX]

I've railed people on this every time it's come up, but with the new statistics arising, I believe it's time we make a small move towards bringing small amounts of marijuana down from an offense punishable by jail time to a ticket/fine level. I mean, the amounts of people consuming resources in prison is just insane.

[Nirvana13666]

I think people who aren’t even criminals flood the prison system. People who have gone into jail at 20 and are now 40 are still in jail for an act of violence that was a mistake but rapists and pedophiles get out in 5-7 years. People get angry and people do drugs and in order for justice to be served each case needs to be looked at as a life and not a number. We should be protected against people who would harm us not teenagers that smoke a lot of pot or people who made mistakes as teens. I don’t wanna to go into detail but I can if anyone would like….

[karasz]

At 5/19/03 11:31 PM, Commander-K25 wrote: Here's a thought, maybe this simply means there are plenty of criminals and nothing more.

well in 2000 when the US hit the 2m mark, 500k were there for drugs... and not even drug related crimes just having drugs... that is 1 outta 4... i dont know how it is now though... BUT it would make a lot less people in prison...

[Anarchy-Balsac]

At 5/20/03 09:39 AM, Shih wrote: Look the laws on drugs exist for a reason. Allowing things such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy to be legal is dangerous. And yes weed does lead to heavier drug use, not for everyone but for enough people that it's a problem.

more dangerous than allowing this black market terror funding and murder to continue? yeah right. also you're wrong, like i said before(but no one ever gets the hint) everyone who wants to do drugs is already doing them. the people i know who don't do aren't refraining from it because of the law, they just don't want to do drugs plain and simple. keeping them illegal is only resulting in increased terror funding and murder, and many many people being needlessly arrested for a victimless crime, people like you make me sick. you should honestly be shot for thinking people should be thrown in jail for something victimless. in fact if we had your kind of government you probably would be shot by nhow

[Slizor]

Here's a thought, maybe this simply means there are plenty of criminals and nothing more.

Then clearly you would have to examine why there are more ciminals......could it be due to the high levels of inequality? Hmmm?

[bumcheekcity]

At 5/20/03 02:24 PM, Anarchy_Balsac wrote:

At 5/20/03 09:39 AM, Shih wrote: Look the laws on drugs exist for a reason. Allowing things such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy to be legal is dangerous. And yes weed does lead to heavier drug use, not for everyone but for enough people that it's a problem.

Weed does not always lead to heavier drug use, in fact, often smokers of weed don't use heavier drugs because their weed gives then their high. Heavy (Crack/ Junk) drugs are usually used in the crummy areas, by the poorest people. They get hooked onto it by their dealers and can't get off. These people are victims and should be helped. We help the insane, why nbot the addicted?

[Shih]

At 5/20/03 02:24 PM, Anarchy_Balsac wrote:

At 5/20/03 09:39 AM, Shih wrote: Look the laws on drugs exist for a reason. Allowing things such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy to be legal is dangerous. And yes weed does lead to heavier drug use, not for everyone but for enough people that it's a problem.

more dangerous than allowing this black market terror funding and murder to continue? yeah right. also you're wrong, like i said before(but no one ever gets the hint) everyone who wants to do drugs is already doing them. the people i know who don't do aren't refraining from it because of the law, they just don't want to do drugs plain and simple. keeping them illegal is only resulting in increased terror funding and murder, and many many people being needlessly arrested for a victimless crime, people like you make me sick. you should honestly be shot for thinking people should be thrown in jail for something victimless. in fact if we had your kind of government you probably would be shot by nhow

*yawn*
Oh look Anarchy's screaming again. Just because the victim of a crime is the person commiting does that mean they might not need help. Now where did I say anti-drug laws were a detterent. Laws aren't meant to be a deterrent, they're there to deal with the people who go against the societies set system of correct actions. As for shooting me, I have been, twice. Anarchy you'll have to do better than that if you think you can offend me.

[Anarchy-Balsac]

At 5/20/03 04:40 PM, Shih wrote:
*yawn*
Oh look Anarchy's screaming again. Just because the victim of a crime is the person commiting does that mean they might not need help. Now where did I say anti-drug laws were a detterent. Laws aren't meant to be a deterrent, they're there to deal with the people who go against the societies set system of correct actions. As for shooting me, I have been, twice. Anarchy you'll have to do better than that if you think you can offend me.

oh so you think throwing people in jail is a help? what kind of an idiot thinks that? you acknowledge that it isn't a deterrent and that it's a victimless crime yet you still think people need to be thrown in jail for it, obviously you ARE an idiot. i honestly hope that next time you are shot it's in the head, people who think that people who hurt no one but themselves deserve to be thrown in jail need not be allowed to live for their votes to influence politics