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Originally Posted by Cincinnatus
"I am not dissatisfied with the number of Americans incarcerated."
Really? I'm not baiting you, but I'm surprised if you really mean this. If I have it correctly, the US has a greater percentage of its population incarcerated than any other developed nation. I find it troubling that the land of the free should have so many locked up. Not that the goal should necessarily be to have the lowest incarceration rate, but rather to have the most just society.
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I meant it. I don't care what the incarceration rate is as long as there are sufficient numbers remaining outside to support the system and provide security. If I am not allowed to chlorinate the gene pool, I want them locked up. As noted, jail is not jammed with occasional dope smokers or one-time bad check passers. Most inmates are bad hombres who would have been killed off a hundred years ago.
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Originally Posted by Cincinnatus
There are certainly SF guys who retire, grow their hair, buy a Harley, and start smoking dope. I don't know how widespread this is, but it would apply to at least one or two of my accquaintance and I suspect that you probably know a few who meet this description. Should they be jailed?
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I have ridden Harleys for more than 20 years now. My hair is irrelevant. I do not use illegal substances, or associate with those who do, and resent the generalization by a non-QP. If you know some, and they are committing crimes, lock them up.
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Originally Posted by Cincinnatus
Again, I'm not baiting you or trying to score rhetorical points off you, just get you to look at things a little differently.
"I think there are many more who should be off the streets."
There are certainly people walking around who should be in prison. I'd like to see mandatory minimum sentences for armed robbers, not dope smokers. Nor am I deluding myself that some of those who use drugs aren't thoroughly despicable creatures. If a mother smokes crack and neglects her kids, I don't have a problem with child services taking the kids and the mother getting locked up for endangering them. Some tweaker loses it and attacks someone, I hope they get shot and if they survive, get tried, convicted, and locked up.
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Isn't that the problem? They bumble along till they get capped, then the missing family pops out of the woodwork with an expensive attorney and sues for the logical outcome of a wasted existence. Do you know what percentage of inmates are incarcerated for committing crimes to support various drug habits?
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Originally Posted by Cincinnatus
I just believe that drug use is an attempt to self medicate and that this should not be a crime, in and of, itself. Further, I think something along the lines of what I'm recommending is more just and far less expensive.
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Is a NAMBLA member who finds a willing partner self-medicating his condition as well? How about the pedophile who assaulted and buried Jessica Lunsford alive. Was he just a poor misunderstood individual who was self-medicating, along with his tweaker associates?
I refuse to buy into your generalizations and excuses. I admit that the system that we have now is not working to my satisfaction. I think that we should be much more draconian rather than lenient with dealers.
TR