The article asserts that those on third strike are just the unlucky ones – that those with one strike are one standard deviation from the mean. An additional strike means just two standard deviations, and three – well, are three standard deviations. This, of course, is complete bunk.

The above scenario assumes that we ALL have committed three felonies, but only SOME have been caught once, by random chance. And some have been caught twice, by random chance. And a few unlucky ones have been caught three times, by random chance, and are put away for good.

The fact is that most of us have NEVER committed a felony. We aren’t perfect, but a FELONY??!?

The fact is that about 1% of people are what psychologists call psychopaths. A psychopath is someone who is Narcissistic, and has absolutely no conscience. If they see something they want, then it is theirs. I’ve dealt with two such people recently – some jerks who stole my car, and a neighbor.

Here’s the worst of it – there IS NO CURE for this – they jump through all the hoops, to get what they want, but they don’t change, because they ARE RIGHT! The first amendment to the constitution says that they get what they want, and the rest of us can divide up what’s left.

Let them back out on the streets, and guess what? They do it all over again. Because they are RIGHT. They were turned loose so they can steal another car, or whatever.

Come on, folks! Be skeptical!

“…the real problem, one could arge, isn’t that too many kids are turning prematurely into adult lawbreakers; it’s that too many adult lawbreakers never left childhood.”

I just don’t accept this. On the contrary, too many kids really are turning prematurely into adult lawbreakers. Those tried as adults are usually repeat offenders, not merely car thefts, but those who have also committed battery, rape, constant antagonism of defenseless classmates and neighbors. Their crimes aren’t merely smoking an occasional joint. It may be tragic that there’s too many young lawbreakers in prison, but there are also tragic consequences for those who have been severely violated by lawbreakers. “Forgive and forget” is a nice maxim, but it just doesn’t work for a person who has to suffer traumatic physical and psychological consequences. Criminal injustice isn’t the problem. More emphasis on what violates another human beings safety and security, and greater consequences for these violations would be the better solution. We non-violators who don’t take up guns and knives, and are not compelled to rape and kill, do indeed feel more secure when youth that is compelled to commit violent crimes are incarcerated. It’s just not true that youth are typically placed in prison for “small crimes.”

Of course it’s important to cut crime at the root, especially with continuous education about what constitutes a criminal act. If current punitive measures do not prevent crime, it’s also possible that more punitive measures than ever before will better curb crime. If the price of selling heroin to 12 year olds, for instance, is punishable by death, I suspect that after word spreads that a few heroin pushers no longer exist on the face of the planet, the problem with heroin use by 12 years would diminish.

Incidentally, I read of a study somewhere that asked the question whether or not high incidents of lead, cadmium and other heavy element pollution common in urban and rural poor neighborhoods lead to higher incidents of violent crimes in those neighborhoods when compared to suburban and affluent neighborhoods that did not have those contaminants in the environment.

Has anyone else heard of such a study? If so, what were the results?

Tom

Also, nobody has pointed out, yet, that one reason why Communist China has such a comparatively-low percentage of prisoners is because they quickly shoot so many convicts. And these are largely ones who have been involved in property crimes, such as official corruption, rather then crimes of violence against their fellow Chinese. Property crimes that would never be considered for a death sentence here.
D.A.W.

The terms are kind of important. So if you are talking “prison” I would say you are talking about convicted felons who are going away for a year or more. “Jail” on the other hand is less than a year, usually MUCH less, and may mean city type jails which are used for holding an arrestee for a very short time until they see the judge at which time often they are released on the own recognizance.

Now, when we compare other nations do we take into account the way their judicial system works? If the 2.3mil includes everyone who has been booked (the initial entry for many into the justice system, prints/photos) then that is going to be, imho, a very misleading number. Especially if you are comparing that number to the number of people actually in prison in some other country.

Sure as individuals, we’d all prefer to lose our 401K’s than lose our lives, but the comparison wasn’t on the scale of individuals. It was on the societal level. Like it or not, laws and punishment have to work on the societal level

Another example is crimes committed by police – don’t they cause much more damage than equivalent crimes committed by citizens by betraying trust in the system (and in police)?

Equating the mismanagement of Grandma’s annuity with the maiming/raping/killing of Grandma herself speaks volumes toward the absurdity of the pacifist mindset.

I’ve lived on the streets, and likely would have died there too if I’d subscribed to the fallacy of a protective “social contract” rather than accept (and work within) the parameters of this harsh reality:

There really ARE “bad” people out there who, if not taken down, will take YOU down. Period.

Do we need to work together to minimize the factors (read: “excuses”) leading up to a life of crime? Absolutely.

Does that process begin with molly-coddling the criminals themselves? Absolutely not…

- J. Gravelle

The War On Drugs bullies have had 45 years to embed themselves in our culture. Since the WOD punishes mostly political minorities – blacks, Hispanics, counter-culture activists, rural poor – the middle class happily joined in, like Dark Ages sadists, burning cats for fun. Very popular.

I think this country is failing because we are too juvenile and too mean. We are a nation of feral kids raising more feral kids and our high school drop out rate is a good measure of the phenomenon and our high prison incarceration rate is a good measure of it’s results. Drop outs need access to easy money because they can’t earn it and they have few social skills so they rely on aggression.

Do we think the glamorization of violence and crime in TV shows like “Miami Vice” has no impact? The War On Drugs looks less like an accident and more like a 1984 setup and anyone who says otherwise could end up like “Winston.”

Please withhold my name!

Hermit

And compares that with England and Wales at 148 per 100,000.

Statistics Canada put the 2005-2006 rates as 110 per 110,000 an increase from the previous year’s 107 per 100,000.

So the United States is still an extreme outlier.

What’s scary is that Canada has a prime minister who thinks Canada should be more like the US in sentencing with longer terms of imprisonment and mandatory sentencing.

It should be corrected ASAP!

Dan