by usualusername 29 Replies latest jw friends
At the moment the USA has around 2 million people in prison.
Along with that you have some crazy prison sentences.
Thug shot at police 19 times. Hit an officer on shoulder.
122 years.
Woman attempted murder.
20 years.
Father murders man accused of abusing his son.
Zero years
Young man burgles 1st home and pleads guilty. Family were on holiday.
20 years.
What is going on with these prison sentences?
and 3 strikes and you are out--
IN prison.
prisons for profit.
Judges on the take with prison companies to fill the cells.
prologos
I heard about a judge sticking kids in care for profit but are prisons run by private companies?
From The Guardian:
The death-defying sentence of 124 years with which Hector Monsegur, the US leader of the LulzSec hacking group, has been threatened is not unprecedented: the disgraced New York financier Bernie Madoff is two years into a 150-year prison term.
American judges, traditionally tougher than their UK benchmates, view loss of liberty as a punitive measure rather than an opportunity for rehabilitation. Those convicted of multiple offences are more likely to receive consecutive rather than concurrent terms. Mocking the guilty's limited lifespan may be the precise purpose of judicial overkill. Judge Denny Chin, who ordered that Madoff be incarcerated until the 22nd century, explained later that his intention had been to send a symbolic message. The financier's conduct had been "so egregious", Chin said, and therefore he should do everything he "possibly could to punish him".
One US state's enthusiasm for consecutive sentences is currently being challenged in court. A Vermont sex offender is arguing that prosecutors exploit the prospect of lengthy sentences to scare defendants into pleading guilty.
Fixed "determinate" sentences and the "three strikes and out" rule operated in California have significantly extended the average length of US prison terms.Impossibly elongated prison terms certainly grab the headlines. Sholam Weiss was given 845 years for fraud and money-laundering by a Florida court in 2000.Jeffrey Dahmer, the Wisconsin cannibal, was handed 957 years for killing 17 people. Like many others, he didn't live long enough to serve his full term: he was beaten to death by another inmate two-and-a-half years into what was supposed to have been nearly a millennium behind bars.
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/shortcuts/2012/mar/07/us-judges-long-prison-sentences
It's funny, but some seem to feel *bad* about seeing this chav scum sent up for a long time.
Especially the repeat violent offenders. Good riddance to them, and may they remain where they well deserve.
"Thug shot at police 19 times". In the US justice system every shot fired counts as one single event of attempted murder. I don't think 10 years (besides the battery for actually wounding an officer and whatever other charges he racked up) for trying to murder a police officer is excessive, and I bet that the majority feel the same.
Father murders man accused of abusing his son.
Zero years
Sounds like obvious mitigating circumstances were taken into account and IMO sounds like a fair (none) sentence, especially if the father had spent time on remand before trial.
Bureau of private prison monitoring
http://www.dms.myflorida.com/business_operations/bureau_of_private_prison_monitoring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi3Hyxuf5AE
The link above is one of the scariest videos on youtube. It shows a father murdering the man accused of abusing his son.
If he was found "not guilty" it's because a jury of his peers reviewed both the prosecution's case as well as that of the defense and made the appropriate choice.
The beauty of the US justice system is that it follows case law.
In extreme cases a jury can also choose to disregard the judge if they feel that the law he is asking them to apply is "bad". Often the jury asks themselves the simple question "do I want this person as a neighbor"? In the case of the dad, the answer was obviously "YES"!
MinisterAmos
The dad killed (or murdered) a man accused of a crime.
Would you want him as a neighbour?
