http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 052D93.DTL

So I guess that this means that we can expect what? Better blues music? Kinda surprising to see that so many Americans are incarcerated.

I'd like to see this breakdown of that 0.7%



professional wrestlers
hip hop stars
cops
CEO's

edit: "The states with the highest rates were Louisiana and Georgia with over 1% of their population."

"12% of all blacks aged 25-29 years of age".

that is insane. I have been really interested in the ideaology in supermax prisons lately. we have problems

Oh, and I am dissapointed that Alabama isn't higher than that on this list. Fuck these people, lock em up and throw the key down the drain.

Talkin bout' my Gener-ation. Now that's fucked.

wow that is mind-blowing

Wow.

Here's another depressing tidbit of info: According to a study conducted by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, 2005 was the first year on record "that a full-time worker at minimum wage could not afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country at average market rates." (Italics mine)

this country sucks.

good thing you're free and able to leave, huh?

I think he already did.

C'mon, there was buckets of sarcasm dripping off that.

what? was I being gauche?

Send all convicts to France.

i'm working for these people this summer trying to do something about it (first on the agenda should probably be making their website less crappy). the really scary thing is that the more people that depend on prisons for their livelihood, the greater the political pressure to incarcerate more people. prisoners are the raw material of the prison industry, and i'm hard pressed to think of a time a politician has ever suffered for being "tough on crime." in the meantime, we're paying sickening amounts of tax dollars to keep all these people locked up.

okay, i don't know about where you live, but here we don't have enough jail cells and we can't afford to build more, so we have to let people go and sentence them to shorter times then they deserve. And these thugs are street smart and they know it.

well buckets i don't know, but yeah.

people are so afraid of a social system that promotes joblessness and pays for the needy but they are a-ok with paying for .7% of the population to be fed, clothed, and housed. pretty retarded.

1. If this was the first time you mentioned the US sucked, I'd buy the sarcasm. But this is post 340 about how life is so much better for you in Europe. Which is fine but it would be less annoying if you just chose to live there and quit bitching about it here.

2. What do you suppose we do with drug dealers, murders, rapist and child molestors? Kill em?

And we pay for more then .7 % for feeding, clothing, and housing, when you factor in food stamps, tax credits, welfare checks, and government housing.

ok dude.

.7 percent of the population is not murderers, rapists, and sexual offenders. they belong in jail.

so many of the offenders are non-violent drug offenders, which is bullshit. they should not be in prison.

i don't think drug dealers should even go to prison...everybody's got to make a living and some people like doing drugs. i like how cutthroat capitalism is okay except when it comes to having control over your own consciousness.

and fyi, i'm only living in the US for 3 weeks out of 2006. i hope to spend very little time here the rest of mylife, buti'll always be american, and hence, i will always bitch.

What about the crimes committed by drug addicts, don't you believe that a person who sells drugs should be viewed as complicit or an accessory to the crime?
Alot of far left people believe that gun manufactures are complicit in homicides, shouldn't the same hold true for those who sell "dangerous drugs". A bar owner can be found liable for allowing a drunk person to leave his premise and kill another person with his vehicle. Will we not have to create more laws and punishments if we would legalize "illegal narcotics" than we do now. I'd think the courts and jails would be just as cluttered.

My dad is coordinator of Drug Court here which offers treatment in lieu of jail time. It's for people who commit drug related crime. It's hard to get serious time dealing large amounts of drugs. My 1st cousin has been busted 3 x's with a trunk load of pot and hasn't spent more then a month in jail. So spare me the tears. Most people in prison have been givin10 chances and have continued to absolutely not give a fuck.

And you think drug dealers who hang around parks and schools and who are single handedly ruining this country don't belong in jail? Stay the fuck in Europe. I hope a crack house opens next to your mom's house while your gone. And I already knew you had plans to only return for a little while cause you mention every chance you get. I'm surprised you don't transfer to some Euro college as I am sure they're better then our piss poor institutions here.

Gauche have you known a kid destroyed by drugs or families decimated? Have you seen neglect of an infant or toddler by a drug-addicted parent? Have you seem what crimes people will commit to get their drugs and what they will perpetrate on other human beings?

Believing some people like to do drugs and people gotta make a living is a simplistic approach that doesn't hold up in real life.

Yes, it's your life and your body, but that's only acceptable argument until your use affects other human beings, especially kids.

yeah, i know a kid destroyed by drugs. my best friend transferred schools, dropped out of columbia and spent 4 weeks in a detox/psych ward because he was out of control and did heaps of cocaine on top of benzos, opiates, and the occasional trip. the guy is heavily medicated all the time now and sounds like a hollow person...

i understand the toll drugs take on people.

but it's nobody fault but his own. no drug dealer should be held responsible for someone's own stupidity/weakness.

I completely agree.

But their crime is not taking drugs, is it?

Their crime is child neglect. Or abuse. Or reckless endangerment. Or whatever it may be....Their crime should not be drug possession. It's too easy for the system to blame the drugs when the real issue is much deeper than that.