Sequestration in the US

This is one very small example of the big picture, but this does play into the overall issues at hand. I posted this on FB in response to a recent event that I'd been made aware of.

 

You haven't changed one bit haha.

I don't think this person understands what the prison system actually is. It's essentially a daycare center for grown men. Ran by government corporations. What I don't specifically like about this comment is that he assumes all criminals that are or have been in jail are career criminals. And are actually not in the system for particularity their own actions. The jails needs inmates in order to keep their jobs and their pay. The "criminal justice" doesn't think like a community service to misguided people, they think like a business.

 

To solve our awful inmate situation we need to end the war on drugs. It's seriously stupid. We need to legalize pot and consider making other drugs legal too. We need to make the penalty for drug use not jail but rather a recovery. We need to end the allowed discrimination of felons in the job market so that they have a fair shot at making it in the world so that they don't feel helpless and turn back to crime. Our jails need to encourage education and learning so that when people get out they have the skills needed to find work. The whole private prison shit needs to end so that we can get rid of the contracts that require us to keep these private prisons near capacity all the time.

 

This not only helps our situation, but it also calms the aggressive war with the cartel in Mexico (especially if we legalize cocaine as well) thus preventing people from boarder crossing for safety.

Also to add to this, I think that more effort to help felons adjust to civilian life should be made instead of just dumping them.

 

In a sense we are all slaves to the U.S. We are born into this country/move into this country that is trillions of dollars in debt. We work, we pay a fraction of it off, we die.

Anyways, on the topic of decriminalizing drugs, this is something I would highly encourage IF, and only IF, other measures were taken as well. The reason I believe drugs should be decriminalized is because I do not believe it is the governments role to tell you what you can and cannot do (as long as you are not infringing on the rights of others). At the same time, decriminalizing drugs without reducing our poverty-safety net, would only end up creating more having for law-abiding, financially secure citizens.

 

I agree. Marijuana, MDMA, Peyote, and things like that - that doesn't produce violent outbursts could be legalized. I also agree that that prison needs to be changed to encourage inmates to become productive members of society and to eliminate the privatization of prisons that encourage the running of prisons as a business. High powered lobbyists will lobby for harsher jail sentences just to make more money.

I strongly disagree with the recovery comment though. I know a lot of people who have been through rehab, between 15 and 20. Only two haven't relapsed after around 6 months. Rehab and half-way houses are largely a waste of funds and grants that could be better spent on education of high risk children that are likely to bring children into the prison system.

 

Why not?
In politics, law and justice is decided by power. Whoever has the arms and the will of the majority gets to decide what is right or wrong.
What my IR professor defines as the golden rule of politics "whoever has the gold makes the rules"

I agree with SuF that the war on drugs is definitely a factor and something we could cut down on, but I dont think that, or even cutting down on prison costs, will solve our problem.
Additionally, I think it is important we feed those who are in jail. Even though people in jail should lose some of their rights, as they have violated others' rights, they should not lose the right to life.
If you were to stop feeding people, wouldn't it be easier just to execute them? That way you wouldn't have to house them, either. Then you have to decide, who is deserving of capital punishment?

 

Prisons are a bigger waste of funds.

 

I am not arguing any thing otherwise. They're a waste of time and effort because they just allow the criminals in there to develop their skills in coordination with other criminals. I am just saying that rehab is useless, at least when in prison they are 'sequestered' from the normal population.

 

This is really what I had to say, in a much more in-depth, and intellectual manner.

Government is and always will be corrupt, the US Government is no exception.

 

Then the methods of rehab are going to have to change. Investing in research to find better methods of rehab would be a good use of money.

 

Do you think prisons themselves should serve as centers of rehabilitation, or solely as areas to place unwanted members of society?

 

Organizing for Action is the post 2012 kick the #$%$ out of traditional America program that is meant to be in place long after Obama has gone into his version of political retirement. It’s global. It’s tied in with the U.N., climate change, gun control, healthcare, taxation, global taxation, currency, education, poverty, hunger, they got every big name item involved and it is what was intended all along. All they need to finish it up is to clear the runway for Barack Obama in 2014. That’s what this sequestration is all about, what it intended to do the whole damn time. Mr. Republican Insider called it right from the very beginning. I wasn’t so sure at first but then I got word from one of my media contacts, one of the few who still talk to me, that the White House and NBC/MSNBC were working together on a big post election campaign to pummel Republicans. This was going to be not only news coverage, but a film tied into it, millions and millions in advertising, the whole kitchen sink. And it was gonna be linking up to some of the 99% framework that is still left, the unions are going to be involved of course, all the players who gave us Obama version 2008 and 2012 are now gunning for the 2014 Midterm. They have to remove Republicans from power. Take 2014 and then take 2016 and hold for another eight years. Game over.