Right Wing Justice

(updated)

The Justice Department has released a new report showing the nation's prison and jail population reached a record 2.3 million people last year.

A record 2.3 million people were in the nation's prisons and jails in 2007, according to a Justice Department report released on June 6, 2008. The report notes that in the 10 largest states, prison populations increased "during 2006 at more than three times (3.2 percent) the average annual rate of growth (0.9 percent) from 2000 through 2005."

The United States leads the industrialized world in incarceration. In fact, the U.S. rate of incarceration (762 per 100,000) is five to eight times that of other highly developed countries, according to The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice think tank.

Two causes...

.. the politics of "get tough on crime".. resulting in very long drug related prison sentences, including life sentences.

... social and economic injustice. The wealth gap widens, the middle class shrinks.. and desperate people do desperate things.

Republican solution - build more prisons
Democratic solution - restructure sentencing guidelines, emphasis on drug rehab, and a focus on lower income prosperity.

There is a reason why the United States has more prisoners than any other first world nation. The media scares people into believing they are constantly in mortal danger, the Republicans fan the flames of fear for political reasons, and.. Willy Horten.

These are people's lives we're talking about.. lived out in a cage. Most assuredly many deserve that.. but what is called the "justice" system in the United States is anything but.

/update

From the 'credit where it's due' file..

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - More than 115,000 former felons who completed their sentences have had their civil rights restored since a new state rule went into effect 14 months ago, Gov. Charlie Crist said.

The rule by the Board of Executive Clemency, which Crist chairs, restored rights almost automatically, ending a policy of requiring the panel to act individually on every restoration of rights request. The rights include voting and the ability to get state and local licenses for certain types of jobs.

"Once somebody has truly paid their debt to society, we should recognize it," Crist said Tuesday. "We should welcome them back into society and give them that second chance. Who doesn't deserve a second chance?"
....
"We simply can't continue to keep doing the same old thing the same old way expecting we're going to have some different outcomes," McNeil said.

He said it will take courage for lawmakers to shift funding from prison building to providing inmates more drug and alcohol abuse treatment, education and training need to find jobs after they are released so they won't return to crime.

This is exactly right.. and quite surprising to see a Republican Governor leading on it.

Of course, Florida was one of the few states that didn't automatically restore rights, but it's progress none the less.