Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[KaelGotDwarves]

Yuppies with money and lawyers

[Leafsnail]

If it's assault... then yeah, it's illegal.  A school doesn't magically make it not illegal.

[Siquo]

If it's assault... then yeah, it's illegal.  A school doesn't magically make it not illegal.

But it does make court disproportional.

[MorleyDev]

Corruption makes the world go round. I'm of the honest opinion the worst traits for a person of power are honesty and self-sacrifice. Lies, deceit, manipulation, self-interest, if a person of authority isn't completely about these things then they are doing it wrong, either playing the wrong game or playing the game wrong. Self-interest is all that drives us to ensure the happiness of those that can take our interests away from us.

As for kids and crime: Sometimes youths are so fucked up and viscous locking them up is about as good an idea as locking up an adult would be.

[scriver]

Corruption makes the world go round. I'm of the honest opinion the worst traits for a person of power are honesty and self-sacrifice. Lies, deceit, manipulation, self-interest, if a person of authority isn't completely about these things then they are doing it wrong, either playing the wrong game or playing the game wrong. Self-interest is all that drives us to ensure the happiness of those that can take our interests away from us.

Cool story bro

As for kids and crime: Sometimes youths are so fucked up and viscous locking them up is about as good an idea as locking up an adult would be.

And you completely miss the point, landing in utter irrelevance. Nice.

[Leafsnail]

But it does make court disproportional.

Does it?  How?

If your school isn't dealing with it, perhaps the embarrassment of it being taken to court will finally make them take it seriously.

[Grimshot]

 Fun fact: My family (on my mothers side atleast) has had to poach in the past to avoid starvation. I think my uncle also ended up stealing some chickens too, though that may have just been him being a dumbass. I hate thieves more than anyone I know but I would never harm one that was just trying to steal some food to eat. The rest though should be prepared for violence, lethal if they have the audacity to come into my home.

 Also, I got into a fist fight when somebody wanted to extort five dollars from me. Its funny how many people said it wasn't worth it. I think thats mainly their cowardice and weakness showing imo. Heh, when I pointed this out to them and brought up how I still had my money they all shut the hell up.

[Siquo]

I'm of the honest opinion the worst traits for a person of power are honesty

This made me laugh. The rest made me cry.

But it does make court disproportional.

Does it?  How?

IT'S A BLACK EYE!

... unless...

Did/do you ever fight, leaf? Ever hit someone in the face? Got into a situation that got out of hand? If not, that explains your reaction.

[Dr.Feelgood]

This guy must have been incredibly desperate to try something so foolish. It's sad that he thought there were only two choices: dying of treatable conditions or go to prison. Of course, this event probably caused most Americans to think that "prisoners have it too good.", instead of "Man, our healthcare system sucks."

I hear talk about "secret deals", corruption, and so forth. That's a legitimate concern.

But what about the completely public corruption?

The private prison industry, well... it exists. That's bad enough. It exists, it's corporate-controlled, and it's profitable. If you think that the "military-industrial complex" is bad (not to say it isn't), consider the fact that we occasionally find it reasonable, apparently, to outsource such a part of our justice system to corporate interests. These corporations have every interest in (of course) maximizing profit, without any concern for social well-being or rehabilitation. Consider this: A company who owns prison has every incentive to promote recidivism and bad behavior rather than curtail it, and they're known to lobby for stricter sentencing and harsher "tough on crime" legislation, for fairly obvious reasons. The fact that we allow corporate interests to literally own and run our prisoners with shoddy oversight is despicable even on its face for the reasons mentioned, and is even worse when you consider the allegations of poorly-run facilities and the fact that the government/public doesn't even necessarily save money by doing it.

Unfortunately, most Americans are ignorant or don't care about their prison system. A few people who posted in this thread are proof of that.

"Prison is a free ride" "3 meals a day, roof over their head, and human rights"

Yeah. A high chance of getting raped, getting barely enough food to sustain yourself, living in a poorly built facility, constant abuse, and having absolutely no freedom. Too good compared to what? Death? What most Americans really want is for prisoners to just... disappear. Doesn't matter what their crime was, just that they broke the law. And, apparently, breaking the law automatically makes you subhuman scum.

It's not entirely the corporations' fault. They just gave the public what they wanted. The high recidivism rate is just proof to most people that all prisoners are evil. When in reality it's because rehabilitation was never a real goal.

Here's a link for people who want to learn more about the U.S. prison system:

http://lf.dont-read.com/?p=51

[Leafsnail]

Did/do you ever fight, leaf? Ever hit someone in the face? Got into a situation that got out of hand? If not, that explains your reaction.

No.  I have never randomly attacked someone and given them a black eye.  I'm not sure if we can assume this was  "fight that got out of hand"... it could just as easily be a classic assault.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Here's a link for people who want to learn more about the U.S. prison system:

http://lf.dont-read.com/?p=51

That's so horrible I'm having a hard time believing it.

[KaelGotDwarves]

It wildly depends where you go, and what state you live in.

I'm betting that some prisons are in fact pretty shititacular, but studying as a sociologist, I spent time in prisons in Utah and in downtown Chicago that were quite nice. Get to do what you want as long as you stay in your cell most of the time. Got tv, books to read, go exercise in a gym and socialise two hours a day. Decent meals.

Better than the homeless in Chicago freezing to death. I'll grant you that.

I'm still shaken from finding a dead penniless man on the road of lower Wacker. And you know what's great? Daley cut funding to homeless shelters and flushed out the makeshift shanties the homeless built so that's why they were all freezing to death. Hell, if I were them I would have stolen something to get inside a prison too.

EDIT: Basically, those poor face two choices: Being told that they are subhuman scum but fed and given shelter, or simply being left to die.

[nenjin]

Here's a link for people who want to learn more about the U.S. prison system:

http://lf.dont-read.com/?p=51

That's so horrible I'm having a hard time believing it.

I thought I had a pretty good idea how low the prison system had sunk in this country, but some of this stuff is hard to believe. The article is written with some flair too, which strains credulity, but most claims are substantiated further down the article.

The prison down in LA is kind of mind-blowing. Predominantly black prisoners working in a prison that was a former slave plantation, farming hundreds of acres of cotton by hand with antique farm tools, overseen by guards who are direct descendents of slave owners?

And people wonder why I get pissed about US drug policy and the prevailing "drugs are bad m'kay" line we're fed. The War on Drugs is almost single-handedly responsible for converting the turn of the century cottage industries into multi-billion dollar corporate operations, by feeding them tens of thousands of revenue generating workers and tenants a year.

There but for the grace of God was I not born in Texas.

Pseudo-edit: And I think this is worth mentioning. In the Holmesburg Prison Medical Trials, prisoners volunteered and were paid piddly amounts of money. While they didn't know what they were signing up for and were incapable of understanding it even if they were told....it's not quite the same, as reported, as Nazi Medical trials. The Nazis didn't go through the bunk houses offering prisoners an extra pot of stew to sign up. Again, the article is a mix of very real facts and events and some creatively-written outrage. No one disagrees the prison system is broke, corrupt in many places and exploits offenders to turn a profit though.

[Criptfeind]

Did/do you ever fight, leaf? Ever hit someone in the face? Got into a situation that got out of hand? If not, that explains your reaction.

No.  I have never randomly attacked someone and given them a black eye.  I'm not sure if we can assume this was  "fight that got out of hand"... it could just as easily be a classic assault.

Well, the part where everyone said she was only going to get (probation? I think.) implies this was not that.

[G-Flex]

People have only gotten probation for worse. Could have been a first offense followed by a lenient sentence. I really don't think we have enough information to judge.

EDIT: Basically, those poor face two choices: Being told that they are subhuman scum but fed and given shelter, or simply being left to die.

As others have noted, yeah, that's the problem, and I can't believe that some people would rather make prisons worse than try to make the homeless/poverty situation better.