>> the success of the Maine model of corrections should highlight the absolutely embarrassing lack of opportunities in the rest of the system Very well said. And I am glad we have a model now, if one was ever needed. I hope other prison systems take note.
As someone actively working in this space, I can tell you they are. Maine is following the so-called Scandinavian Model. It essentially comes down to giving incarcerated people a chance to practice normal daily activities and social interactions. The facilities feel more like highly secure dorms than jails. The way a head of a different DoC said still sticks with me: We send people away for years, tell them exactly w…
If locking large numbers of people up for inordinately long times prevented crime, the United States would be the safest place in the world. We have 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prison population. We are one of a dwindling number of countries that will lock up a child for life (there was a SCOTUS case baring automatic life sentences for minors, but it leaves a loophole wide enough for a semi to…
The US imposes life sentences on minors? Do I read that right or am I misreading this comment?
If locking large numbers of people up for inordinately long times prevented crime, the United States would be the safest place in the world. We have 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prison population. We are one of a dwindling number of countries that will lock up a child for life (there was a SCOTUS case baring automatic life sentences for minors, but it leaves a loophole wide enough for a semi to…
The US imposes life sentences on minors? Do I read that right or am I misreading this comment?
Yes. And not only life sentences, but life sentences without the possibility of parole. For minors.
We are literally the only country that does it. It is a heinous and barbaric practice. And, like all of our mass incarceration system, is it vastly disproportionatly applied to Black children. We are a backwards country in many, many ways.
Whether you feel sympathy for Preston or not, the fact of the matter is that 95% of the incarcerated individuals in the US will one day love next to you and me. Wouldn't you rather they be prepared to live there, to have a job and resources? To be self-sufficient (Preston will not need welfare resources when he returns because of this opportunity)? (Disclosure, I am Preston's employer and formerly incarcerated myself…
you're a mentally ill tr4nny who murdered someone during a meth deal. amazing how the few "sweetheart articles" online fail to mention this.
The US imposes life sentences on minors? Do I read that right or am I misreading this comment?
Yes. And not only life sentences, but life sentences without the possibility of parole. For minors. We are literally the only country that does it. It is a heinous and barbaric practice. And, like all of our mass incarceration system, is it vastly disproportionatly applied to Black children. We are a backwards country in many, many ways. https://www.sentencingproject.org/policy-brief/juvenile-life...
It starts to make more sense when you look at the 13th amendment: > Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted , shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Private prisons are in the business of cheap labor, not rehabilitation. It would be extremely expensive to effectively change the lifestyles of…
> Private prisons are in the business of cheap labor, not rehabilitation. How so? From that post and a few others I've read touching on the topic, it didn't seem obvious that prisoners are being put to work.
MDMA either puts me to sleep or makes me talk faster than freaking Busta Rhymes raps, without effort. I recorded it once and it's crystal clear. Fun stuff. Need to get to the science of that mechanism.
My experience with MDMA is that it just feels like weaker meth which would sure explain it
That's pretty harsh. Children turn into adults, and not all of them turn out great. As a parent my responsibility is to get them to adulthood with as much chance of success as it is possible for me to provide. At some point they do absolutely become responsible for their own decisions. Do I ever want to find out what it would take to throw my own child out of the house? Of course not. Am I going to toss them out when…
> That's pretty harsh. Children turn into adults, No, it's not. It's reality. And you only think it's harsh because you are ignorant. And that ignorance will not prepare you for reality. > But this idea that you should be responsible for another adult for the rest of their life just because you created them...? That's silly. No, it's reality. And if you think otherwise, you are not ready to be a parent. Or you'll hav…
There is always a limit for everything. If they had four kids, then they also had to think about the well-being of the other three. Sure there are bad parents throwing their kids out without special reason, but it’s a philosophical choice here: you have to choose to give the parents the benefit of the doubt, and trust that they tried as hard as they could. At 17 years old he was not a child anymore, not an adult either, but he certainly could have seen that he was destroying his whole family. Should a parent let one teenager destroy the lives of the other three? There are always limits. The limit can be very very far off, but it exists. Maybe he was bringing criminals into their home? Maybe he was stashing drugs inside and the police was knocking on their door? Maybe he was violent against the other members of the family and the parents couldn’t stop it in any way? Maybe he was threatening to hurt the others? Stealing from the others? Who knows. Parents are humans too, I suspect you don’t have kids, but being a parent turns you into an almost-super human but still human.
I could have been that guy, and worse. When I was 19 I got caught selling a bunch of MDMA at a night club. Undercover police caught me, and by God's grace they chose to let me go. MDMA had just begun to carry a minimum 10 yr prison sentence throughout the state. I had no idea what I was doing in my life, like I was asleep and not awake, until I got caught that night. About 15 minutes into the interrogation at the sce…
I could have been that guy, and worse. When I was 19 I got caught selling a bunch of MDMA at a night club. Undercover police caught me, and by God's grace they chose to let me go. MDMA had just begun to carry a minimum 10 yr prison sentence throughout the state. I had no idea what I was doing in my life, like I was asleep and not awake, until I got caught that night. About 15 minutes into the interrogation at the sce…
That man gave you your entire life back. It's not just the time you would have served, but it would have ruined so much of the rest of your life too.
Or, rather, he declined to steal his life away and imprison him
for what they obviously both agreed was a bullshit reason.
I don’t think declining to be a villain warrants the same response as choosing to be a hero.