Dangerous criminals require incarceration
I read the editorial on prisons ("State's prison growth handcuffs taxpayers," Jan. 24) and how we citizens are being held as prisoners ourselves due to the "cost" of prisons.
I worked 30-plus years in the North Carolina system and have visited systems in other states. For the writer to broad-brush the issue and say that we need to release those who are not a threat anymore, and to place the 16- and 17-year-old offenders in our juvenile system (already badly overcrowded and underfunded also) is not realistic.
I am convinced that the writer has not visited a prison or taken time to look at the nature of those incarcerated. In most cases, fines, probation, treatment programs, etc., have already been tried before the person is finally sent to prison. They very seldom come into the system on the first offense but only after several convictions.
The majority of offenders in this day and age are also more violent, thus the need for the high-dollar, close-custody prisons to protect the inmates from each other and for the safety of the staff. I predict it is only going to get worse, not better.
Dean Walker
Marion
Comments (7)
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1 - A chicken in every pot, a prison in every back yard. The Unemployable have the choice between becoming guards (who have to work, ya know) or prisoners (who have it easy).
2 - Make contaband KY Jelly, Vasoline, and all other similar products.
3 - Guilt by association is still guilt.
4 - Thought Crime is still a Crime.
5 - Eliminate juries. The best dressed lawyer wins.
6 - The more attractive defendents are declared innocent, unless there is serious money involved.
7 - An electric chair in every court room. When the prisons gets full, start using the chair. That'll be a visible deterrent, and save on gas after the trial too. Hell'of a show too, made for Court TV (think of the rating!)
Posted on February 2, 2006 5:47 AM
Yet Andrea Yates walks free after admitting drowning her kids in her bathtub. Our justice system sucks.
Posted on February 2, 2006 11:40 AM
Ouch to both of you; I think that human behavior is a little more complex than that.
We need to go further than "Crime---Time" or
Crime------------punshment. We do need accountability--if we don't at some time think more broadly, this problem will never go away.
Posted on February 2, 2006 2:48 PM
Joejoe:
Seek sarcasm and ye shall find it.
Posted on February 2, 2006 2:57 PM
So are you sayin that Andrea Yates should walk free?
Posted on February 3, 2006 10:14 AM
She should be put only in the mental ward of a prison, so that she can receive counciling and medication. She is a criminal and a murderer despite the fact that she was obviously mentally unstable. In that fact her husband (who kept her isolated and continued to impregnate her) should go to jail. The doctors and mental health people that not only released her from treatment centers when the insurance money ran out should be prevented from practicing. The insurance companies that discontinued payment forcing her in to the street should be held accountable as well. Many people failed these children. I am only satisfied that they are now with the lord.
Posted on February 3, 2006 10:57 AM
Okay, while you guys are putting people in mental wards etc, let's take a more humorous approach. Remember the old Championship Wrestling shows?
Why not have HAIR vs.HAIR, LOSER GETS THEIR HEAD SHAVED!
When you see an attorney walking down Market, Greene or Commerce, just know that if they had a shaved head, they lost their case in court and their client went to prison or the chair. The criminal attorneys with the longest hair would be the ones you'd want to represent you if you ever got into a brush with the law.
Posted on February 3, 2006 9:23 PM