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Do Jails Kill People?
31–40 of 77 posts
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone commits around three federal felonies a day, according to the premise of the book "Theee Felonies a Day" that I read a long time ago. We are all criminals and all do something "wrong" legally, all the time. The only difference is that the justice system focuses on some of us and not others, and the plea system harms most of those who are focused on, because any scrutiny at all can virtually always lead to an…
This is a real concern in politically- or publicity-motivated prosecutions. And it gives prosecutors a wide avenue to abuse their powers. But are these a significant per cent of cases that lead people to Rikers? I'm gonna guess no, they won't add up to even a single per cent.
Just to be pedantic, Rikers, as I recall, is a state/city jail and not a federal prison.
My personal belief is if the gov't wants you in jail, they can basically make it happen and only people with extreme resources may be able to belay that.
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#33Do jails kill people? No. Jail is a tool. People kill people.
People don't kill people. Loss of oxygenation of the brain kills people.
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#34Incarceration has been a sore spot of the american justice system for a long time. Privatization should be illegal and the plea system needs reform. “Because jails are chaotic and concealed from outside view, we only become aware of them when very bad outcomes occur, such as deaths,”
Rikers Island is operated by the New York City Department of Correction, not a private company, and 85% of Rikers' residents have not been convicted (at least not yet) so how are your suggestions supposed to help with any of the issues outlined in the OP? If anything, moving away from plea bargaining would mean more people in jails awaiting trial. More generally, what is the value or repeating things like argument-le…
Why do people awaiting trial for petty crimes need to go to jail? Rich people don't have to go to jail. Give them an ankle monitor and a court date.
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Privatization should be illegal and the plea system needs reform. IMHO, apathy about anyone who's ensnared in the legal system, " Well, if they weren't doing anything wrong... ", leads to dehumanisation. Dehumanisation will - almost always - lead to many forms of abuse. I wish it were as simple as just making privatisation illegal and reforming the plea system but I fear that it would take far more than that to see…
Everyone commits around three federal felonies a day, according to the premise of the book "Theee Felonies a Day" that I read a long time ago. We are all criminals and all do something "wrong" legally, all the time. The only difference is that the justice system focuses on some of us and not others, and the plea system harms most of those who are focused on, because any scrutiny at all can virtually always lead to an…
That book was a huge exaggeration. It's central thesis was that most things that that are felonies are larger scale versions of minor acts (like battery is unwabtedt touching, so supposedly you could be convicted for bumping someone on a subway, and since the law accounts for mens rea, anyone could be party to a crime if the crime occurred and the judge/jury believe it was intentional. What's the alternative, to make any crime legal as long as the perpetrator has a partner and they both blame each other for being the mastermind?
Your example of people who very clearly commuted major crimes, but could have avoided punishment, is the opposite of your thesis. very few people steal over a million dollars.
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#36I've decided that American jails are job projects [2]. They make work for guards, sheriffs and lawyers, at the expense of trapping people in a system from which they can't escape. The passenger I bailed out of jail [0] was almost killed by jail policies. He was forced to submit to a daily injection of time-release insulin, on the basis of his high A1C levels at intake. This has the effect of suppressing his blood sug…
The US prison system is a direct reaction to the Constitutional Amendments that banned chattel slavery except for prison. Et voila, immediately a huge prison system immediately popped up.
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#37Incarceration has been a sore spot of the american justice system for a long time. Privatization should be illegal and the plea system needs reform. “Because jails are chaotic and concealed from outside view, we only become aware of them when very bad outcomes occur, such as deaths,”
Rikers Island is operated by the New York City Department of Correction, not a private company, and 85% of Rikers' residents have not been convicted (at least not yet) so how are your suggestions supposed to help with any of the issues outlined in the OP? If anything, moving away from plea bargaining would mean more people in jails awaiting trial. More generally, what is the value or repeating things like argument-le…
If you don't want to keep hearing the slogan, find a different way to fix the underlying problem.
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#38I read an estimate that the majority of rapes that happen in the US are prison rapes. If so then even the public discourse on rape itself is failing to highlight and protect these thousands of victims of sexual violence.
It's so normalized in the cultural psyche it's the subject of jokes. It's not uncomfortable "trying to make terms with something" jokes, it's full on schadenfruede.
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#39This story about a woman giving birth in a cell at a Texas facility is pretty disturbing: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/07/10/premature-baby-born-at-d... The guards just ignored her. The baby died. The story mentions other incidents in the same facility. There are several world class hospitals just down the street. It did get shut down, but likely solely due to this incident involving a child. The prior incidents wer…
Also, this happened to be a privatized facility. I do think that's a big problem.
On the other hand, there are plenty of state employee run facilities with similar issues. The conditions vary wildly by both state and specific facility.
Re: Do Jails Kill People?
#40Has anyone watched the recent documentary 'The Work'? I think putting people in jail is possibly the worst crime of all. Let's get them in therapy instead. We can help to heal them by listening to their stories. The trailer for 'The Work' can be watched here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8OVXG2GhpQ
Good luck convincing anyone that listening to stories will drastically alter a person's neurology to the point of making them go from hyper-aggressive to docile. Until we improve our cognitive reforming abilities, violent criminals need to be segregated from the rest of the population. I do agree, though, that the vindictive aspect of "justice" is primative.
The issue is that most people in prison aren't "hyper aggressive". We incarcerate way more people than other places so your argument seems predicated on there being a lot more "hyper aggressive" people in the US than other places and I can't think of why that's the case.