Prison in America

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09 Feb 2012, 7:17 pm

The US now has more people behind bars than Stalin had in the Gulags:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/a ... rge_gopnik

ruveyn
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09 Feb 2012, 7:49 pm

emtyeye wrote:

The US now has more people behind bars than Stalin had in the Gulags:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/a ... rge_gopnik

But they are not being tortured.

ruveyn

emtyeye
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09 Feb 2012, 7:59 pm

ruveyn wrote:

emtyeye wrote:

The US now has more people behind bars than Stalin had in the Gulags:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/a ... rge_gopnik

But they are not being tortured.

ruveyn

If you read the article, you will see that one way to torture people is to lock them up with nothing to do. Nothing to do but sit there and rot. There's more than one way to torture people. To say nothing of the epidemic of rape and the threat of rape in prison.

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09 Feb 2012, 8:14 pm

Unlike gulags, American prisons are unlikely to transform into small semi-successful towns or cities after decades of time or provide any sort of contribution to outside society (other than the obvious one of removing criminals from circulation, temporarily...). Gulags are obviously a horrid concept but there were differing "levels" of gulag. Some were more like prison-settlements where people lived and worked but were not allowed to leave and probably had a hard life but weren't tortured. American prisons are more like convict colleges, or gladiator school, then a place for someone to be rehabilitated in society. At least, many, many of them are... Sadly the Harper Government here in Canada wants to adopt an American style revolving door system because of the profit potentials.

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09 Feb 2012, 8:16 pm

emtyeye wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

emtyeye wrote:

The US now has more people behind bars than Stalin had in the Gulags:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/a ... rge_gopnik

But they are not being tortured.

ruveyn

Not to mention some of the people in prison should not even be there, especially any non-violent drug offenders.....I wonder if they spend more on schools or prisons.

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ruveyn
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09 Feb 2012, 9:06 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:

Not to mention some of the people in prison should not even be there, especially any non-violent drug offenders.....I wonder if they spend more on schools or prisons.

Most of the people in the Gulag should not have been there either.

Prison is a sh*tty deal for prisoners. But American prisons are less bad than the Soviet Gulag. In the Soviet Gulag prisoners were worked to death. This does not occur with American prisons. I think we should repeal our anti-drug laws. Doing so would free 2/3 of the prison population. Only real criminals and bad guys should be put in a cage.

ruveyn

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09 Feb 2012, 9:25 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Sweetleaf wrote:

Not to mention some of the people in prison should not even be there, especially any non-violent drug offenders.....I wonder if they spend more on schools or prisons.

Agreed.

Any prison sucks, but American prisoners are doing pretty decent compared to many past times.

As far as drug laws go, I still haven't heard the slightest bit of evidence that the government has the right to tell me what to put in my body.

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10 Feb 2012, 1:15 am

Vigilans wrote:

Quote:

Sadly the Harper Government here in Canada wants to adopt an American style revolving door system because of the profit potentials.

Harper still giving you fits, aye?

ruveyn wrote:

Quote:

I think we should repeal our anti-drug laws. Doing so would free 2/3 of the prison population. Only real criminals and bad guys should be put in a cage.

Agreed; it should be apparent by now that the war on drugs is a failure and move on to more constructive endeavors or even no endeavors at all. Unfortunately, though, we’ve already built empires around the drug war that once erected don’t come down easily. This is one of the many pitfalls of big government.

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10 Feb 2012, 1:17 am

I wish there was a way that if someone would not repeat there mistake that they could get out early. I know there is good behavior but that can still take up a lot of time

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10 Feb 2012, 1:20 am

Raptor wrote:

Harper still giving you fits, aye?

In this case for wanting to create the sort of prison system you describe here:

Raptor wrote:

Master_Pedant
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10 Feb 2012, 1:36 am

Raptor wrote:

Vigilans wrote:

Quote:

Sadly the Harper Government here in Canada wants to adopt an American style revolving door system because of the profit potentials.

Harper still giving you fits, aye?

Given that he presently has a majority government, that's to be expected. Fortunately, unlike the USA, Canada actually has a left.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJkOmatBS-I[/youtube]

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10 Feb 2012, 1:41 am

My response can be condensed to a single, simple sentence:

Repeal drug laws.

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10 Feb 2012, 2:28 am

ruveyn wrote:

emtyeye wrote:

The US now has more people behind bars than Stalin had in the Gulags:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/a ... rge_gopnik

But they are not being tortured.

ruveyn

Hi ruveyn,

Too bad the "non-torture" is so often fatal in the U.S.A.:

bluntedboywonder wrote:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILEmYeX7eHQ[/youtube]

Quote:

62-year-old Nick Christie was restrained, gagged and pepper sprayed up to 10 times in the Lee County Jail in Florida - his death is raising questions about torture and abuse

This is a disgrace!

An news article has more details of the common "rare practice":
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/1 ... 92412.html

Then, sissy me is worried about more of "reasonable accommodation" to a helped early death:

Tadzio wrote:

After about 16 years of driving with no traffic citations, I stopped driving almost 25 years ago. State Rehab demanded that I continue to seek jobs requiring driving, but when simple partial seizures more often progressed to complex partial seizures sometimes like short-term melt-downs, I regarded driving as too dangerous.

In public, I now now try to maintain continuous recordings & GPS tracking for such events, as the public & police are often hostile in their responses. A recently released video of a guy on the roads of Henderson, Nevada in Diabetic Shock, illustrates what some responses can be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv6Mzcs8Vuw
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv6Mzcs8Vuw[/youtube]

Tadzio

Iran is looking for more diplomats to explain away the history of WWII, since "un-tortured" history is so unpleasant. Besides, as Ted Bundy claimed: "Look At All The People Not Murdered!! !" But, that still seems like a very, very poor defense.

Tadzio

Magdalena
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10 Feb 2012, 3:58 am

Tadzio wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

emtyeye wrote:

The US now has more people behind bars than Stalin had in the Gulags:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/a ... rge_gopnik

But they are not being tortured.

ruveyn

Hi ruveyn,

Too bad the "non-torture" is so often fatal in the U.S.A.:

Tadzio

Also, this video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8J8sUNa3c[/youtube]

For those who don't know or can't figure it out, what happened in the video is that the guy crossing the crosswalk at the beginning is shot dead by the officer when he refuses to put down his knife. However, the man with the knife (the "woodcarver") wasn't doing anything threatening or violent with the knife- the cop just shot him dead for no good reason. It amazes me that the police are treated with blind trust by so many people, and by mainstream society.

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10 Feb 2012, 8:30 am

Master_Pedant wrote:

Quote:

Fortunately, unlike the USA, Canada actually has a left.

That will be the stoopid remark of the day even though the day is young.
You’ll have to work hard to top that one.

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10 Feb 2012, 8:37 am

He's right, you know. We just have conservatives like Obama, and vicious fascists like the Republican Party.

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