How to fix the Prison Industrial Complex.

From Wikipedia: en.m.wikipedia.org...

Excludes federal prisoners. In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners.

22% of all of the world's prisoners are in an American jail. 22%. Holy hell.

I'm not an expert in the field of law, nor criminal justice, but I think I have an idea how to fix the pay to stay money machine that is the modern prison system.

Set a maximum percentage of a population that can be jailedincarceratedimprisoned!

Think about it. It would remove the incentive to lock more people up on truly minimal charges (ex. Weed) and at the same time force us to take a hard look at exactly what laws are important to us.

I mean, that's half the problem, the number of laws. Who can keep track of them all? Lawyers can. And we all know how much we like them.

So, what sounds about right? 1%?

a reply to: Tempter

Personally speaking, I think the Prison Industrial Complex can only be solved one way.

The running of prisons by any entity other than state and federal government, ought to be banned, and all private companies currently involved in the process should be liquidated. Detention and correction of convicted criminals, should be the SOLE responsibility of the government alone, local or national, and never be given over to profit making entities to take care of.

Ending the war on drugs is a good start.

a reply to: Tempter

Just repealing Cannabis prohibition and then releasing everyone incarcerated on non violent Marijuana offenses would get rid of almost half off the national prison population. Let that sink in. We have almost a quarter of the world's prisoners and just about half of those people are there for weed. So what does that give you? Basically an eighth of the world's prisoners are American users or sellers of the most incredible and useful plant on planet earth. . . . That is only illegal because of a tyrannical and frankly criminal pharmaceutical industry. WTF

originally posted by: Puppylove
Ending the war on drugs is a good start.

"Always remember, that the war on drugs is really a war on personal freedom" Bill Hicks.

originally posted by: 191stMIDET

originally posted by: Puppylove
Ending the war on drugs is a good start.

"Always remember, that the war on drugs is really a war on personal freedom" Bill Hicks.

or something to that effect 😉

a reply to: TrueBrit

The privatisation of probation is a good example and that leaked into the UK and probably many other places aswell.

A system that exploits the poor for money and then, even if they fail to get the money there, then exploits them in private prisons for more money.

I wouldn't mind a game of PASS THE PARCEL with # loads of cash, taking my LAYER off every turn .

a reply to: Tempter

The for profit prison industry is simply one that should not exist. When you create a business, you seek out clientele. When you don't have enough clientele, but have enough money to influence legislation, you CREATE clientele.

Why are people sitting in jail over statutes and codes where there is no injured party and your accuser is the State?
Get rid of jail time for no crime.

Well what do you expect?

In order to justify and validate our political system, our lawmakers must continuously make laws.

Sooner or later it'll become criminal to not hold your dick a certain way.

a reply to: Tempter

End the war on drugs and release any low-risk inmates.

Focus the 20+ billion dollar savings on job creation and training. Be tougher on the causes of crime instead of the endless arms race of tougher penalties as deterrents. Free up Law Enforcement and choke the profit margins for organised crime.

And instead of a war on drugs or a war on poverty, let's have a war on slogans!!

We can call it:

A couple of recent news items:

U.S. to phase out federal use of private prisons

The U.S. Justice Department announced plans on Thursday to phase out its use of privately operated prisons, calling them less safe and a poor substitute for government-run facilities.

In a move hailed by civil rights groups and longstanding critics of for-profit prisons, the department said it planned a gradual phase-out by letting contracts expire or by scaling them back to a level consistent with recent declines in the U.S. prison population.

Shares of the two leading U.S. private prison companies plummeted on the announcement. GEO Group Inc (GEO.N) ended down 39 percent at $19.51 on the New York Stock Exchange while Corrections Corp of America (CXW.N) sank 35 percent to close at $17.57.

The phase-out of private contractors is in line with President Barack Obama's efforts to reform the U.S. criminal justice system, which he has said incarcerates too many people, particularly minorities.

In 2015, the United States held 25 percent of the world's prisoners even though it only accounts for 5 percent of the world's population, according to the White House.

Feds say courts' bail-or-jail policies are unfair to poor

ATLANTA (AP) -- Local courts that jail poor defendants because they can't afford to pay bail are unlawfully discriminating against the poor, federal attorneys say in a legal brief in a Georgia lawsuit.

The U.S. Justice Department says such policies are unconstitutional.

The federal brief was filed Thursday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit of a north Georgia man who spent six days in jail in the city of Calhoun because he couldn't afford $160 bail following his arrest on a misdemeanor charge.

U.S. Justice Department lawyers argue that such policies "unlawfully discriminate" against poor defendants by using preset bail amounts that don't take into account the accused person's ability to pay.

While I agree with ending the war on drugs, which is a complete failure, and legalizing MJ, many people are not educated as to the reasons for the huge incarceration rate.

America has a huge crime problem, which is being masked by manipulation of the statistics. Our country also has a huge problem with governmental corruption and incompetence.

The bigger the bureaucracy is the more it malfunctions.

a reply to: Tempter

" How to fix the Prison Industrial Complex."

Bring Back the Death Penalty in All 50 States for Very Serious Crimes , and Dismantle the Present Corporate Prison System with Federal Run Prisons that have a Strong Emphasis on Rehabilitation of the Lesser Hardened Felons .

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Tempter

Personally speaking, I think the Prison Industrial Complex can only be solved one way.

The running of prisons by any entity other than state and federal government, ought to be banned, and all private companies currently involved in the process should be liquidated. Detention and correction of convicted criminals, should be the SOLE responsibility of the government alone, local or national, and never be given over to profit making entities to take care of.

Agree 100%

Kind of funny, a different type of disaster by private prisons was foreseen by Vonnegut in "Hocus Pocus." In the end, "for profit" should never apply to law enforcement, or the penal system.

a reply to: 123143

Most of that crime problem is directly linked to the war on drugs.

The war on drugs and for profit prisons are why we have the most incarcerated. Try actually removing these two things and I'm willing to bet after a few years of chaos things are reasonable.