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At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

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Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

#161

Post by lawn »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #132
punnerud wrote: post #39

In Norway you earn money in prison, and we still have lower percentage of people in prison.

Is it a fair comparison though? Norway is relatively small and homogenous compared to the US. And doesn't have a puritanical and pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps culture. EDIT: I don't mean to defend the US here. It's a terrible system. Rather just point out the societies are so different I don't think what works in Norway can transfer directly to the US.

There is no "fair" comparison, because quite frankly the US is quite unique in this respect.

(Well, I guess you could say that countries like North Korea are worse, but even the thought of having to compare against North Korea should give a hint on how bad things really are.)

Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

#162

Post by dotancohen »

ok_dad wrote: post #141
missedthecue wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only 4.5% of US inmates are in prison for drug possession. I do wonder what the rate is for other countries. Shocking that 55% of inmates are in for violent crimes such as murder, rape, and manslaughter. source: https://felonvoting.procon.org/incarcerated-felon-population...

Source, please, that just seems incorrect. That would mean for 2mm prisoners there would be 1.1mm murderers, rapists, and manslaughterers. That seems like way too large a number to be realistic with the declining rate of murder, rape, and manslaughter.

Presumably murder, rape, and manslaughter carry longer sentence terms.

If a rapist spends five times as long in prison compared to a drug offense, then there will be five times as many rapists behind bars if the quantity of the two crime's convictions are comparable.

Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

#163

Post by standardUser »

DisjointedHunt wrote: post #142
standardUser wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a gun often has a victim. A seriously injured or dead victim. Getting high does not. That difference cannot be overstated.

What? Lol. Let’s pull the stats on stabbing or blunt force trauma and ban baseball knives, kitchen knives and nail clippers as well ? Terrorists ran people over with vehicles. So of course, renting a Uhaul van now has to come with a lengthy background check? The absurdity of the comparison astounds me, and I’m willing to bet, would certainly astonish you were you to step outside the bubble you seem to be in. Have you…

I don't know what ax you're grinding, but if you want less dead people from drugs, stop supporting laws that force people to engage with violent underground marketplaces to buy impure drugs of unknown origin.

Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

#164

Post by otikik »

rileymat2 wrote: post #134
akudha wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Murder happens despite being illegal, and will continue to I don’t understand how you can compare murder with drug use (or even selling drugs). Nobody says “let me try murder today and see if I like it” but plenty of people say (and do) “let me try drugs for fun today and see if I like it”. Not all illegal activities are the same.

It is a response to: > The government strains, at extraordinary expense, to pretend they can stop drugs from being made, bought and sold, but they can't. My point is that whether or not something still happens once illegal does not have much bearing on whether it should remain so. Nor does it signal failure of the policy as long as there is reduction. Because marijuana being illegal did reduce the production, and con…

Did reduce the consumption, or did reduce the voluntary admission of (illegal) consumption?

Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

#165

Post by consp »

missedthecue wrote: post #119
wizofaus wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not clear how that's relevant to the comment you were replying to, unless you're suggesting that being jailed for minor controlled substance offenses is far more common in the US than the many other developed countries with similar laws?

Only 4.5% of US inmates are in prison for drug possession. I do wonder what the rate is for other countries. Shocking that 55% of inmates are in for violent crimes such as murder, rape, and manslaughter. source: https://felonvoting.procon.org/incarcerated-felon-population...

> https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen...

I'll let you figure out your mistake from there.

Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

#166

Post by culi »

DangitBobby wrote: post #62
breitling wrote: post #6

>All but two states have so-called “pay-to-stay” laws that make prisoners pay for their time behind bars What? Had no idea about this whatsoever and I consider myself a well-read person. Damn.

Seems like something people should know about. It's incredibly dystopian.

Also wild to think about the fact that many states take away voting rights for prisoners (e.g. Florida which voted to stop this practice but Santis managed to undo that)

Another extremely dystopian reality we live with daily and rarely stop to question.

When the 13th Amendment was proposed, one of the big compromises the South fought for was the "except as punishment for crime" clause. And, of course, immediately after it was passed there was a big cultural shift in racist stereotypes of Black men from being effeminate and cowardly to being big scary criminals. Basically just a rush to recreate the slavery apparatus by imprisoning Black people

Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

#169

Post by Akronymus »

tmpz22 wrote: post #148
Akronymus wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> IMO it at least contributed to some of the worst riots in recent history. What an absurd thing to say. Even a cursory Google search proves this to be utterly false.

I didnt say it was the sole reason. Contributed to != sole cause
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