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| Why are so many people in Jail?
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A recent study by the Pew Center on the States found that, in 2007, for the first time in our nation's history, more than 1% of our nation's population were imprisoned or in jail. (See the article at http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080 314/NEWS04/803140340.) The reason that there are so many people in jail - unjustly, I might add - in the United States, is because of recent changes in the law.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the United States went through a period of turmoil in which many legitimately violent offenders were being allowed to walk free and re-offend because of the impact of liberal Supreme Court decisions. The 1980s saw decent people develop the understandable but wrongheaded idea that the solution to the problem of offenders walking the street was to simply start locking people up, indiscriminately if need be, by drastically infringing on the rights of those who were falsely accused, changing evidentiary rules, and increasing the power of police and district attorneys while simultaneously doing away with any legitimate oversight of those two groups.
At the same time, right-wing politicians were waging a ridiculous "war on drugs" in which people were being locked up for mere possession, and the looney left started going after so-called "drunk drivers" consequent to the vapid whining of organizations such as MADD.
Liberals then began to operate on the principle that, "If you are gonna lock up our guys, we are gonna lock up your guys." A whole host of matters were criminalized on the federal level at the behest of liberal interest groups, producing a whole generation of pseudo-criminals who are guilty of some regulatory infraction that is actually pretty minor, but for which they are serving hard time. CEOs of corporations are now serving time for having accounting books that don't balance, falsifying reports, or some mythical environmental infraction which they had no idea their companys were violating.
Innocent men have been locked up by the multiplied thousands by changes to the criminal law insisted on by radical feminists that redefined both the concepts of "rape" and "domestic violence." Today, anyone who is accused of rape - no matter how utterly unlikely or how lacking in credibility is the accuser - are assumed to be guilty. The same is true of men accused of "domestic violence" (which is not violence at all - if violence had been involved the men would have been convicted of "assault" or "battery," but the most common issue in "domestic violence" proceedings is whether or not a man is "controlling" - in other words, men are being treated as criminals for not letting some whining woman have her way). Men accused of rape or domestic violence are now assumed to be guilty, and the proceedings consequent to such allegations simply take place to see if the man can somehow prove a negative - in other words, if he can prove himself innocent.
Think back, for instance, to the Duke Lacrosse case.
This change, of course, turns on its head the traditional (and moral) assumption of "innocent until proven guilty."
Add to this such unconstitutional innovations as "Three Strikes and You're Out" and the blatant careerism of judges, attorneys, and police who believe that being "tough on crime" is the best way to get ahead and have forgotten their moral duty to actually administer the scales of justice.
It is certainly true that more people in the USA are locked up today than at any time in history. It is also true that more people who are not criminals are locked up in the USA today than at any time in history.
Both liberals and conservatives have blood on their hands because of this. Conservatives for the outrageous war on drugs, and liberals for everything else.
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Posted by contraeverything on 2008-04-25 13:11:40 | Rating: | Views: 259
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I read the first paragraph and stopped... my attention span is very small so don't take offense.
I believe in legaizing ALL drugs and prosititution....you think about ALL the consiquences before you reply....
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Posted by Nutshell
on 2008-04-25 22:51:03
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