Here is what happens when you are governed by wingnuts whose thinking on crime doesn’t extend beyond the punitive.
BOISE – Nonviolent criminals are being kept behind bars in Idaho twice as long as they are in the rest of the nation.
That’s among the major findings of a nine-month study into how Idaho could spend its money better and get better outcomes from its criminal justice system. Researchers for the Council of State Governments and the Pew Charitable Trusts found that the state has one of the nation’s highest and fastest-growing incarceration rates, despite its low rates of crime.
Idaho House Judiciary Chairman Rich Wills, R-Glenns Ferry, a retired state trooper, called the data a “wake-up call.”
The study also showed that Idaho suffers from a “revolving door of recidivism,” driven in part by a system that sends probationers and parolees back to prison – filling 41 percent of the state’s prison beds – without tailoring the penalties to their violations. If the state were to enact a package of reforms, the researchers estimated it could save $255 million on prison costs in five years, while investing just $33 million into better supervision and tracking programs.
They won’t do anything with the results of this study because it would require them to use parts of their brain not shared with lizards.
The state probably has occupancy contracts with the prisons that they have to fulfill.
Meh… incarcerating a lot of people keeps the unemployment rate down. It also offers us a way to deal with people once they fall too far behind economically to do anything about. Toss into this that prisons provide tons of good middle class union jobs, privatization lets us funnel cash to NYC, SanFran, and our other major cities that let us win the culture wars and I’m not all that upset over it.
Lower unemployment, union jobs, cash in the hands of finance traders in blue cities… what’s the problem?
Stupid.
SiDC is a fucking moron.
He thinks that he and his buddies in DC will be safe once the shit hits the fan because he doesn’t have a Pro-Forced-Birth bumper sticker on his car.
no, probably is a paid troll, doesn’t think at all, just collects his check from Kochs
For real?
Reads like dark satire to me!Then again I’ve never been a fan of Dark satire as too many believe it’s the way things should be.
I’m in favor of all those who are pro imposing punitive punishments should be forced to endure them under the same circumstances, In the interests of balance.
A few less hard core ignorant, extremist elitists would be a plus for the gene pool. Now that intelligent (design). 🙂
OT:
If you didn’t know whether the Murray-Ryan budget deal was good or not, this:
http://twitter.com/FixtheDebt/statuses/412663729428254720
should tell you.
I totally agree that “zero tolerance,” “three strikes,” and “mandatory sentencing” are destroying justice in this country. Winger guilt is clear, but I don’t think Democrats are blameless for the situation. Certainly, I don’t see many of them trying hard to change it. I would urge you all to read The Criminalization of Everyday Life by Chase Madar
You know there’s a problem when the incarceration rate of the US is 3X that of the former East Germany (!?!)