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Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[kaijyuu]

Of course, nevermind that the way we do prisons is a bad idea from start to finish anyway.... Ugh. The only way I see fixing this problem among others is to tear the whole prison system down and build anew, focusing on crime prevention and with punishment being incidental.

Would that be before or after clean, reliable fusion power is implemented nationwide?

Before, but after the robot revolution where humanity no longer needs to perform physical labor.

[kaijyuu]

That won't happen. The robot AI overlord will see us as adorable pets it needs to keep safe and happy.

[RedKing]

Copying Norway, maybe?

I assume Norway's prison system is based on Trial By Viking? 

[kaijyuu]

* kaijyuu would be a robot collaborator if it meant he could sit around and play video games all day.

Copying Norway, maybe?

I assume Norway's prison system is based on Trial By Viking? 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/25/norwegian-prison-inmates-treated-like-people

[scriver]

That article is just propaganda. In reality, Iceland is secretly Scandinavia's Australia, where we exile every non-behaving criminal.

[RedKing]

I'd like to think Iceland is peaceful because rather than prison, they just toss criminals into volcanoes. Doubles as population control.

[RedKing]

I'd like to think Iceland is peaceful because rather than prison, they just toss criminals into volcanoes. Doubles as population control.

Imagine America's Three-Strikes system there?

'You stole a cookie three times. Into the volcano!'

Actually, you'd go into prison while appeals are hashed out for the next 15 years, THEN thrown into a volcano.

[scriver]

On the plus side, the prison is also in the volcano.

[Doctus]

But people dislike being pets!

Maybe some people.

[RedKing]

On the plus side, the prison is also in the volcano.

Iceland is Dwarf Fortress?

Actually, that sounds accurate:

Long, strange names with no pattern of patronymy,
Magma.
Surviving mostly by fishing and eating things like shark livers.
Population are mostly bearded alcoholics.

[Darvi]

I can only assume Scriver also lives inside a volcano.

* Darvi pulls the lever.

[Descan]

* The Drawbridge lowers and lets in the goblin siege.

[Lord Shonus]

Honestly, the largest flaws in the US prison sytem are not caused by the way prisons are designed and operated (although there is certainly room for improvement there), but rather on the legislative and judicial end. Politicians are pushed into DOING SOMETHING about the latest crime spike , resulting in excessive amounts of bad* legislation, while most judges are elected, meaning that they feel the need to appear "tough on crime" to the minority that actually votes in judicial elections, resulting in them tending towards higher sentences in election years. The easiest way to reduce this is to make any reduction in maximum sentence, decriminalization, or legalization retroactive (thus, if you got a 15 year sentence for dealing crack back when the "crack is five times as bad as cocaine" law was in effect, eliminating that law would reduce your sentence to whatever the maximum for cocaine dealing is, releasing you if you're already beyond that), and by eliminating judicial elections to remove them from the heat of public opinion. This would vastly reduce incarceration rates.




*

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My definition of a bad law is any that fails one of these criteria

1. There must be an actual, quantifiable problem (for example, "Too many people are driving while intoxicated, and they are much more likely to cause an accident in that state") that needs addressed, rather than a vague mission statement (such as "make our highways safer")

2. There must be data to suggest that this law will address said problem. To continue with the drunk driving metaphor, setting a blood-alcohol limit over which it is illegal to drive is effective, while mass-closings of carry-outs and liquor stores is not)

3. The law must not cause any greater inconvenience to people not part of the problem than absolutely necessary. Thus, having a sobriety test at the discretion of an officer that pulls you over is reasonable, installing breathalyzers in all vehicles is excessive.

4. The law must be enforceable. As an easy method of determining blood-alcohol levels exists, as do basic tests to determine degree of impairment, so this is passed.

[10ebbor10]

The Prison Industrial complex probably hasn't helped either. More prisoners = Mo Money.

[BurnedToast]

Eight years for setting fire to a trash can? I'd rather have lynch justice. Texas confirmed for dystopian hellhole.

He didn't set fire to a trashcan, he made two molotov cocktails and threw them over a fence at a house and it just happened to only catch some trash cans on fire. Considering he had a history of starting fires, hurting people, and threatening to blow up his school... he most likely intended to burn that house down.

Not that he deserved to be raped till he killed himself of course, but it was attempted arson   not some innocent childhood prank.

On top of that, he was not even in an "adult" prison when the rapes and suicide took place - he was already in a unit for younger offenders and most or all of the abuse was by boys around his own age. The law in question would almost certainly have done nothing to help him.

Which is not to say the law is bad and rick perry is some kind of hero, he's still a terrible person. I just don't understand why people (referring whoever wrote the linked article, not Helgoland) have to make things out to be worse then they are when the reality is already bad enough.