Slavery in the USA 2016

[ChrisL]

I agree that sometimes it may seem inappropriate, but a lot of those people you are talking about are career criminals who have had their chances and blew them. If you cannot do the time, then don't do the crime. I know that sounds cliche, but it is true. If you don't want to go to jail, then don't commit crimes. It's very hard to feel sorry for them.

Why are you ignoring the fact that there are crimes and there are crimes -- and some crimes are very different from others?

Would you agree there is a significant difference between someone who forcibly rapes you and someone who steals your car? Do you acknowledge the difference between being harmed and being inconvenienced? Have you any idea how many otherwise decent, peaceful individuals who did nothing more than possess or sell marijuana but are serving time in the same cell-blocks or dormitories as those who rape and kill and are, as you've said, habitual, assaultive felons?

Well, nowadays in my area of the country, it is only a misdemeanor if you are in possession of only so much marijuana (for personal use - not selling of course).

I'm not ignoring any facts. If you know you are going to have a bad experience from committing a crime and you do it anyway, why on EARTH should I feel badly for you? This is especially true for those who repeatedly get arrested and charged with crimes. Kind of like the mouse that keeps electrocuting itself for a piece of cheese!

 

[ChrisL]

I think that prisons should be self sufficient. They should grow/harvest their own food, they should have well water, etc., with the prisoners doing the work. These guys and gals need to be working full time at least. Instead of us taxpayers having to pay to house and feed these inmates, they should be working for their keep.

That could work in some remote, rural places but not in the mainstream. It simply isn't a practical idea (or it would be implemented).

Maybe not in all areas. The prisoners can still work though. They can clean up roads and do plenty of things. If they are working all day, then they won't be causing riots and killing other inmates and other such things. "Idle hands are the tools of the devil."

 

[MikeK]

I think that prisons should be self sufficient. They should grow/harvest their own food, they should have well water, etc., with the prisoners doing the work. These guys and gals need to be working full time at least. Instead of us taxpayers having to pay to house and feed these inmates, they should be working for their keep.

That could work in some remote, rural places but not in the mainstream. It simply isn't a practical idea (or it would be implemented).

Maybe not in all areas. The prisoners can still work though. They can clean up roads and do plenty of things. If they are working all day, then they won't be causing riots and killing other inmates and other such things. "Idle hands are the tools of the devil."

I recall some years back when there was a particularly heavy snowfall in the New York area. A new commissioner (William Ciuros) of the New York City Department of Correction had the Warden of Rikers Island bring out inmate work details to shovel snow off the Rikers Island Bridge and on the surrounding residential streets. What he got for the effort was a court action Cease and Desist order by the Sanitation Department workers' union.

So these things are not always as simple as they seem.

 

[MikeK]

Well, nowadays in my area of the country, it is only a misdemeanor if you are in possession of only so much marijuana (for personal use - not selling of course).

I'm not ignoring any facts. If you know you are going to have a bad experience from committing a crime and you do it anyway, why on EARTH should I feel badly for you? This is especially true for those who repeatedly get arrested and charged with crimes. Kind of like the mouse that keeps electrocuting itself for a piece of cheese!

Again I'll ask you, do you believe the man who sold you an ounce of marijuana should be punished in the same manner as the man who forcibly raped you? And if you intend to parry by saying an ounce is not so much, then up it to a pound. Because there are a lot of people serving time for selling marijuana and they are serving it in the same cellblocks as rapists, armed robbers, residential burglars and other "career" criminals who routinely hurt people in maliciously brutal ways.

I'm not saying there should not be punishment for breaking laws, but some laws are simply unjust and all "crimes" are not similarly egregious. Simply stated, a shoplifter should not be punished in the same way as a mugger.

In response to the essence of your comment; while one should expect to be punished for committing a crime the violent criminal should expect to punished more severely than the non-violent criminal.

 

[OldLady]

I think that prisons should be self sufficient. They should grow/harvest their own food, they should have well water, etc., with the prisoners doing the work. These guys and gals need to be working full time at least. Instead of us taxpayers having to pay to house and feed these inmates, they should be working for their keep.

Work is good for the body and soul. I agree its time to bring back the chain gangs. But even more important its time to stop the flow of drugs into this nation that is ruining so many lives.

And make people more responisible for their own actions. You don't get a raise for being knocked up and if you knock up a women you go to jail if you don't support them. Make drugs legal ,maybe I'm kinda on the fence, but make those who have kids feed them instead of others taking on their responsibility. This will stop alot of crime.

I agree if we could get rid of drugs, it would help. But "MAKE those who have kids feed them instead of others taking on their responsibility" is NOT going to "stop alot (sic) of crime." It is going to increase it. They will steal, hack, and do whatever they must to feed their kids. Don't you understand that welfare is to quiet the poor and keep them out of our homes while we are on vacation?

 

[Katzndogz]

They are also housed and fed

They get medical care, they are clothed. They get free entertainment. We pay their cable tv bill.

 

[ChrisL]

Well, nowadays in my area of the country, it is only a misdemeanor if you are in possession of only so much marijuana (for personal use - not selling of course).

I'm not ignoring any facts. If you know you are going to have a bad experience from committing a crime and you do it anyway, why on EARTH should I feel badly for you? This is especially true for those who repeatedly get arrested and charged with crimes. Kind of like the mouse that keeps electrocuting itself for a piece of cheese!

Again I'll ask you, do you believe the man who sold you an ounce of marijuana should be punished in the same manner as the man who forcibly raped you? And if you intend to parry by saying an ounce is not so much, then up it to a pound. Because there are a lot of people serving time for selling marijuana and they are serving it in the same cellblocks as rapists, armed robbers, residential burglars and other "career" criminals who routinely hurt people in maliciously brutal ways.

I'm not saying there should not be punishment for breaking laws, but some laws are simply unjust and all "crimes" are not similarly egregious. Simply stated, a shoplifter should not be punished in the same way as a mugger.

In response to the essence of your comment; while one should expect to be punished for committing a crime the violent criminal should expect to punished more severely than the non-violent criminal.

They are NOT punished the same way.

 

[MikeK]

They are NOT punished the same way.

If they are sent to the same prisons as are the most viciously assaultive felons, are they not being punished in the same way? Do you think they are afforded special circumstances in those cellblocks?

Your comments are not based on what you know to be true but what you want to be true. So you are commenting from a position of ignorance.

 

[BlindBoo]

What's the matter with for profit prisons? What could go wrong?

 

[Dragonlady]

They are also housed and fed

That doesn't mean they aren't slaves, or that judges aren't sending men to prison to meet the contract quotas. Often the work is difficult and dangerous, but inmates have no option to refuse. If also takes work away from unemployed working Americans.

Fortunately, the government is ending these private prison contracts, and this slavery will end.

 

[BlindBoo]

its time to stop the flow of drugs into this nation that is ruining so many lives

That's right. Support only USA grown dope.
A message from Dope Grower's Union 714

But this has become a Prozac Nation.

No, no, we're an opioid addicted nation again. We have to protect the children you know.

 

[MikeK]

What's the matter with for profit prisons? What could go wrong?

Inasmuch as they are a source of profit the inevitable tendency to increase profit will lead to false and unnecessary imprisonment. Read this: Judge Sentenced for Selling Kids into For-Profit Prison

 

[MikeK]

No, no, we're an opioid addicted nation again. We have to protect the children you know.

Don't be misled by anti-drug propaganda. "Opioid-addicted nation" is a gross exaggeration. The "drug problem" is not nearly as serious a problem as drug-war advocates would like you to believe. We have our share of degenerate drug addicts but far fewer than you've been led to believe.

 

[BlindBoo]

No, no, we're an opioid addicted nation again. We have to protect the children you know.

Don't be misled by anti-drug propaganda. "Opioid-addicted nation" is a gross exaggeration. The "drug problem" is not nearly as serious a problem as drug-war advocates would like you to believe. We have our share of degenerate drug addicts but far fewer than you've been led to believe.

There I go forgetting my end tag </sarcasm> again. Sorry about that.

 

[MikeK]

There I go forgetting my end tag </sarcasm> again. Sorry about that.

Noted.

 

[whoisit]

1820 Chinas drug Holocaust. The Opinum Wars. I think it was the Brits who flooded them with drugs.

Okay. Thanks.

I'm embarrassed to have overlooked that bit of history.

But I hasten to add that the Opium Wars are not only history but they took place during an era of relative ignorance about the inherent danger of unrestrained recreational use of opiates. It is not likely the same level of mass addiction would have occurred if the Chinese of that era were as knowledgeable about the risks of addiction as are the populations of today's developed world. Another factor to consider is addiction to powerful opiates is most common among economically depressed peoples and the population of China during that era was generally impoverished.

With regard to the topic, I maintain that unless government authority rises to the extreme level it did in China during the Opium Wars and is presently being exercised in the Philippines, law-enforcement is simply and obviously incapable of controlling access to and the use of recreational drugs. What can work but which has not been effectively implemented here in the U.S. is an intensive and well structured public education program such as that which has successfully managed to reduce cigarette smoking by approximately 80% -- without arresting a single individual or imposing repressive laws.

I know that because the public education program conducted in the '70s and '80s is what caused me to withdraw from a 35 year cigarette addiction in 1985 -- and it's what has prevented many millions of Americans from taking up that lethal habit.

Mike I love to study history, but now that I'm old I've probably forgot more tham most people will ever know,lol.

America has been for many years and still is under attack from leaders using drugs among other things to control and keep power. Thye could stop the influx in one wek if they wanted to. IMO.

 

[whoisit]

the usa prison system is institutionalized slavery, prisoners work for 10 cent an hour or less.

USA prisoners are slaves.

theres an industrie working of these slaves.

Why don't you worry about the tens of thousands of Asian girls working as slaves in massage parlors?

Or pre-teen girls forced into marriage with older men in Muslim enclaves?

Or the thousands of African slaves in Muslim countries in the Mideast?

You are a troll.

Africa is still the largest slave market in the world. Always was and always will be it seems. Blacks and arabs have always been heavy in slave trade.

 

[MikeK]

Mike I love to study history, but now that I'm old I've probably forgot more tham most people will ever know,lol.

America has been for many years and still is under attack from leaders using drugs among other things to control and keep power. Thye could stop the influx in one wek if they wanted to. IMO.

The purpose of the drug war is to serve the interests of those special interest groups that benefit from it.

the simple and obvious fact is some percentage of the population chooses to use drugs and there is no way within the constraints of our constitutional democracy to prevent them from doing so. So rather than continue inflicting the counterproductive effects of the drug war on our population it is time to abandon it and embark on a well-structured public education program.

We certainly couldn't do any worse.

 

[Flash]

The real slavery in this country is the slavery of the American people to the filthy ass government.

The combined Federal Local and State governments takes 40% of the GDP and that is a significant stealing of labor.

Slavery is being forced to hand over the fruits of your labor to somebody else and that is exactly what is going on in this country. Might as well be forced to pick cotton in order to earn our grits and watermelon.

 

[yiostheoy]

the usa prison system is institutionalized slavery, prisoners work for 10 cent an hour or less.

USA prisoners are slaves.

theres an industrie working of these slaves.

Many American prisoners are lucky to be alive.

Some of them should have been executed.

Prison has always been slavery for the miscreant class which cannot exist on the Earth without close minute by minute supervision.

Most of them are better off in prison than in society.

Unfortunately prison overcrowding has made their slave lives inhumane.

We need more prisons.

Or else we need to release the nonviolent offenders.