Plead guilty to minor charges?

[Grumph]

Well Dear Freinds,

I confess. When I was younger I bought into the line that “we need to legalize all drugs” because “most of prisoners are there for non-violent drug offenses!”

What a fool I was. Trusting News Corp reporting. And not even putting two and two together despite widespread exposure to “plead guilty to minor charges.”

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Twitter Thread by Delano Squires:

I read this post by @DavidAFrench to hear his arguments and heart. That said, this essay suffers from the same problems most analyses on crime and punishment in this country do: 1) a lack of specificity, 2) misplaced sympathies, 3) and an unwillingness to assess tradeoffs.
As is often the case in this area, David never says WHY people in this country are incarcerated. Before I do that, it is helpful to know what the ecosystem of confinement looks like. There are about 630K ppl in local jails.

The largest part of the confinement ecosystem is the state prison system. This is where over 1.2M people are incarcerated. If you let “criminal justice” reformers tell it, you’d think most are there for low-level nonviolent drug crimes. But that is simply untrue.

And lest you think there is some hidden racial disparity that explains this, please note that there is a higher % of whites (16%) in prison for drugs than blacks (13%). The unfortunate fact is that violent offenses are what drive the racial disparity in incarceration.

All of the available data (CDC, FBI, local crime statistics) supports this claim. We never hear about it because the people who write about these issues are long on rhetoric about justice and “mass incarceration” but short on actual data.

As is the case in many other areas of American life, the people with the loudest megaphones have NO IDEA what they are talking about. They make arguments based on well-worn talking points, euphemisms, and a desire to look like compassionate, empathetic people.

This inability or unwillingness to deal honestly with the data causes the second problem—misplaced sympathies. You hear it even in how the issues are framed—CRIMINAL justice vs. PUBLIC safety. So French and others think America has an “over incarceration” problem.

But he never says what the appropriate level of incarceration should be. Reformers never do. They note a disparity and assume the main problem is the effect, not the cause. He also notes that prison doesn’t have the rehabilitative effects many citizens desire.

But what people who live FAR from belly of the beast fail to realize is that while it is amazing to see a person turn their life around in prison, the main point of removing ppl from society is to PROTECT the law-abiding and innocent from the law-breaking and guilty.

I highly doubt French would argue that we should rethink prosecuting hate crimes because perpetrators may become even more racist in prison. And I certainly don’t see him writing an article in The Root explaining to black people why such a move would advance the cause of justice.

Lastly, there is the issue of policy trade-offs. If reformers think that theft under $1000 should not be prosecuted, they should be prepared to speak honestly about the effects that decision will have on the victims—whether CVS or the mom-and-pop store—and the community at large.

Same with other offenses, including violent ones. When order declines—often abetted by bad public policy—the slide into chaos is quick and costly. Reformers talk a good game until the first shot pierces their window or until their child is the one who is carjacked at gunpoint.

The truth is, given the right circumstances, we ALL desire vengeance. Prioritizing the guilty over the innocent is not a standard of justice I recognize, whether from the Bible or or any other source.

[Tunabros]

off topic is so cringe now

[Whale biologist]

too long

[unsunghero]

Higher % of whites in prison means nothing, there are more white people than black people in the USA. When normalized for population size there is a greater % of the black population incarcerated than white people

This of course can ONLY be due to prejudice in the judicial system according to Democrats. But there’s also 10 times more men than women in prison for violent offenses. So according to democrat logic, this means there is a huge prejudice against men in our judicial system as well

Because of course, there can be no other explanation for these population differences. Nope, just discrimination and prejudice. That’s it

[unsunghero]

Pot should be legalized. If you legalize heroin and meth with substance abuse treatment being voluntary only (which it is, voluntary ONLY), you remove family’s ability to try to prevent their loved one’s slow suicide from drug abuse, or from the public having to watch it play out in front of them on the streets

No clear solution either way, which is why it’s remained a problem this long

[Whale biologist]

Originally Posted by unsunghero [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This of course can ONLY be due to prejudice in the judicial system according to Democrats. But there’s also 10 times more men than women in prison for violent offenses. So according to democrat logic, this means there is a huge prejudice against men in our judicial system as well

Well, no. You can't just make up nonsense hypotheticals to promulgate your priors.

[unsunghero]

Originally Posted by Whale biologist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Well, no. You can't just make up nonsense hypotheticals to promulgate your priors.

Where’s the nonsense hypothetical again?

[Whale biologist]

Originally Posted by unsunghero [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Where’s the nonsense hypothetical again?

The part of your post I replied to, sorry if that was unclear to you. 🙃

[unsunghero]

Originally Posted by Whale biologist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The part of your post I replied to, sorry if that was unclear to you. ��

Yeah it’s completely unclear. It’s a fact that there are about 10 times as many men incarcerated for violent offenses as women. So if we are going to look at incarceration differences as a sign of prejudice as we do with race, why not do it here? Is it not possible for courts to be prejudice against men? It’s been documented before in custody cases

The truth is there’s a lot of reasons for both race and gender population incarceration differences, and one tiny part of that might be prejudice.

In the case of black people I’ll list the others:

Poverty
Evil guns

I’ll tell whose fault it’s not, it’s not their parent’s fault who raised them (or didn’t raise them), and their culture has no flaws

Nope, it’s prejudice, poverty, and guns. That’s all

[imperiouskitten]

Originally Posted by Tunabros [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

off topic is so cringe now

cuz im not runnin this shit aktively