The Latest in Criminal Justice: Holding Tanks for the Poor and Mentally Ill.

[Nice Squirrel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/u...poor-ill-and-addicted-a-report-says.html?_r=0

Jails across the country have become vast warehouses made up primarily of people too poor to post bail or too ill with mental health or drug problems to adequately care for themselves, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The study, “Incarceration’s Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America,” found that the majority of those incarcerated in local and county jails are there for minor violations, including driving with suspended licenses, shoplifting or evading subway fares, and have been jailed for longer periods of time over the past 30 years because they are unable to pay court-imposed cost

 

[AthenaAwakened]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/u...poor-ill-and-addicted-a-report-says.html?_r=0

Jails across the country have become vast warehouses made up primarily of people too poor to post bail or too ill with mental health or drug problems to adequately care for themselves, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The study, “Incarceration’s Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America,” found that the majority of those incarcerated in local and county jails are there for minor violations, including driving with suspended licenses, shoplifting or evading subway fares, and have been jailed for longer periods of time over the past 30 years because they are unable to pay court-imposed cost

Ebeneezer would be proud

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

This is what government does. Support of government to do good also means support of government to do this.

 

[ksen]

no, not really

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Well, St. Reagan deemed that the mentally ill shalt not be housed, but big house them we did.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

While I agree that we shouldn't be holding them because of court costs that doesn't change the fact that there needs to be punishment for such offenses and those without money can only realistically be punished by jail time.

 

[arkirk]

While I agree that we shouldn't be holding them because of court costs that doesn't change the fact that there needs to be punishment for such offenses and those without money can only realistically be punished by jail time.

You seem to have punishment on the brain. Ease up! Mentally ill need treatment. Poor need an income. Neither need punishment.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

no, not really

yes, yes really

 

[Angry Floof]

While I agree that we shouldn't be holding them because of court costs that doesn't change the fact that there needs to be punishment for such offenses and those without money can only realistically be punished by jail time.

One of these days, you're going to see human beings first and rely on your ever-vigilant punishment goggles second. At least, I hope you do.

 

[Derec]

You seem to have punishment on the brain. Ease up! Mentally ill need treatment. Poor need an income. Neither need punishment.

They aren't jailed for being "poor" or "mentally ill", but for committing offenses like, as the article says, "driving with suspended licenses, shoplifting or evading subway fares". Should poor just be smacked and told not to be naughty, but basically let off?

 

[Axulus]

And isn't driving with a suspended license kind of like driving while under the influence? Society has determined you unfit to be on the road. Lives and safety of the public are at stake here. For inability to pay fines, I don't think that should necessarily merit jail - attempts should be made to collect though for those above the poverty line. They should be required to do community service to pay off their fines.

 

[Juma]

If being poor and/or having mental illness is a major faktor in what makes them do these things then they shouldnt be in jail.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

While I agree that we shouldn't be holding them because of court costs that doesn't change the fact that there needs to be punishment for such offenses and those without money can only realistically be punished by jail time.

You seem to have punishment on the brain. Ease up! Mentally ill need treatment. Poor need an income. Neither need punishment.

When the mentally ill behave in socially unacceptable ways they should be punished anyway--if there are no negative consequences there's no incentive to get treatment.

- - - Updated - - -

You seem to have punishment on the brain. Ease up! Mentally ill need treatment. Poor need an income. Neither need punishment.

They aren't jailed for being "poor" or "mentally ill", but for committing offenses like, as the article says, "driving with suspended licenses, shoplifting or evading subway fares". Should poor just be smacked and told not to be naughty, but basically let off?

It's obvious: If a poor person does something wrong it's because a rich person made them do it.

 

[Angry Floof]

If being poor and/or having mental illness is a major faktor in what makes them do these things then they shouldnt be in jail.

I agree, and if being poor and/or having mental illness means a whole different experience from that of rich or connected people when encountering our justice system, then the system needs to change.

Of course, if your regard for your fellow human beings begins with a callous ideology that punishes the weak and poor, then all that extra suffering is no big deal, right? Why make inhumane systems more humane when that singular goal of PUNISH THEM is clearly being met?

 

[barbos]

While I agree that we shouldn't be holding them because of court costs that doesn't change the fact that there needs to be punishment for such offenses and those without money can only realistically be punished by jail time.

You seem to have punishment on the brain. Ease up! Mentally ill need treatment. Poor need an income. Neither need punishment.

And (some) rich need prison time.

 

[Underseer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/u...poor-ill-and-addicted-a-report-says.html?_r=0

Jails across the country have become vast warehouses made up primarily of people too poor to post bail or too ill with mental health or drug problems to adequately care for themselves, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The study, “Incarceration’s Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America,” found that the majority of those incarcerated in local and county jails are there for minor violations, including driving with suspended licenses, shoplifting or evading subway fares, and have been jailed for longer periods of time over the past 30 years because they are unable to pay court-imposed cost

How dare you have a problem with this? If you believed in Small Government like the patriotic Real Americans^TM do, you would understand why it is necessary to do things like this to commoners.

 

[Frikki]

Funny how the libertarians here salviate whenever someone else is being fucked by the state.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Funny how the libertarians here salviate whenever someone else is being fucked by the state.

No, Underseer is a conservative, not a libertarian.

Unless you think I was salivating over someone being fucked by the state. Do you?

 

[bilby]

This is what government does. Support of government to do good also means support of government to do this.

no, not really

yes, yes really

Then how is it that the low-tax, small-government USA has a massively greater proportion of its people in jail than the high-tax, big-government Scandinavians, Europeans, or Australasians?

Your ideology is contradicted by observed reality. This is not 'what government does', it is 'what the US does'. Support of government to do good anywhere else in the world does not lead to this outcome at all.

 

[Metaphor]

This is what government does. Support of government to do good also means support of government to do this.

Whether you or I or anyone 'supports' government is entirely irrelevant to whether government will exist. Government is inevitable, whether that is a constitutional democracy, an absolute monarch, or fluctuating rulers with more fuzzily defined borders (ie, warlords).

You can put a toll booth on every road, but you cannot have 'private justice'. It's an incoherent absurdity.