US prison population hits 7 million.

[SlowwHand]

It includes treatment centers and all other facilities, be they penal or medical, Heresson.

[Heresson]

oh

[:) Smiley]

The 2% figure is hardly the worst of it, since imprisonment is not equal among all demographic groups.

-most prisoners are men.
-minorities make up a disproportionate amount of the prison population.
-poor people get locked up more often, since they can't afford good lawyers.

the result? in some neighborhoods, more than half the men of working age are in jail or on parole. you can imagine what this does to the local economy.

[Dis]

if they had been working and not doing crimes they wouldn't be in jail.

Even most of the druggies should probably be in jail. Their kids need not grow up watching mommy and daddy get high.

[Pekka]

DIs, you have to look at the crime and see how it is a crime. Simply altering your brain functions for a while can not be a crime in itself. Or is the state so powerful, that it has the right to control your right to your own brain? That's very Orwellian.

So that alone can not be a crime.

Possession of a substance that helps you do that, however, is. Why? If people use drugs and do other crimes under the influence, those are still crimes.

The problem is the criminal industry who produces and sells the stuff. That's teh real problem.

By simply stating it's wrong, it's WROOOONG!!! is just an invalid argument.

Arguments that CAN be used are that it is unhealthy usually, and that there is this whole criminal industry around it.

Are these kind of health issues enabling the state to through people in prison? Hamburgers are bad for you, drinking is bad for you, extreme sports are bad for you.

SO it really boils down to the criminal industry behind this, and we do know how well the prohibition worked on alcohol and how that was solved.

If YOU want everyone to be the same, work 9 to 5, go to church, and be good protestants, maybe communism is for you?

[Dis]

no commies for me.

I really wasn't planning on taking this side of the argument, but since I've already started down the road...

I hate nanny states. Obviously people should be allowed to **** themselves up. But when they have kids and other people that depend on them, I think it's wrong. Not that to goverment should throw your mommy and daddy in jail for using. I don't think I would have wanted them to throw my dad in jail for being an alcoholic. But it was different in his case. He never stole or broke the law to support his habit.

All I'm saying is people who break the law (as in stealing/prostitution) to support their habits should be thrown in jail.

[MikeH]

The reasons are simple. In the US (and getting more that way in the UK) prison is big business, people can make a fortune running correctional facilities in the US, and "longer sentences, harsher on criminals" is always a vote winner.

[Pekka]

Dis,

"I hate nanny states. Obviously people should be allowed to **** themselves up. But when they have kids and other people that depend on them, I think it's wrong."

I agree with you 100%. I think, parents shouldn't even get drunk in front of their kids. Of course when they are old enough, who cares, but when they are kids.. you know that can be scary to kids. Parents getting different. They are supposed to be these safe people, your models and all that. Then they get drunk and you don't know them anymore, that's scary to kids.

People who break the law to support their habit.. again I agree. They are commiting crimes. Stealing, what ever, that's still criminal so sure, absolutely.

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by Dis
no commies for me.

I really wasn't planning on taking this side of the argument, but since I've already started down the road...

I hate nanny states. Obviously people should be allowed to **** themselves up. But when they have kids and other people that depend on them, I think it's wrong. Not that to goverment should throw your mommy and daddy in jail for using. I don't think I would have wanted them to throw my dad in jail for being an alcoholic. But it was different in his case. He never stole or broke the law to support his habit.

All I'm saying is people who break the law (as in stealing/prostitution) to support their habits should be thrown in jail.

Is prostitution illegal in the US, In the UK it is soliciting for business that is the crime.

There is move in the UK to think of prostitutes as less of the criminals and that those who use them are equally guilty. Which certainly didn't use to be the case

[SlowwHand]

Prostitution is another thing I would legalize, tax, and have under government medical inspection.
Socialistic? Maybe. There are bigger fish to fry though.

[BeBMan]

It's not socialist. It's classic free market stuff.

[Zkribbler]

Yeah, "tax" implies private enterprise. Governments rarely tax themselves.

[BeBMan]

It's also about free trade - of precious body fluids

[SlowwHand]

Doesn't have to be government medical exams. All the better.

[Dis]

I'm not one to argue against prostitution. I was mainly talking about street hookers and such.