Quote:
Originally Posted by Rochard
Are you serious?
Yes. Of course.
Let's say you break into someone's car and steal a cell phone. If caught you would most likely be charge with trespassing, vandalism, auto burglary, and grand larceny. Then lump in possession of stolen property and of course drugs will be involved.... In some states it's considered burglary, and if you have a firearm and or threaten someone during the crime it's first degree burglary... You can go to jail for up to twenty-five years for that. (I looked it up.)
What you want to happen if someone broke into your car and you had to replace the window and perhaps repair other damage, and they took your cell phone which you never get a back.... A few weeks in jail and $200 fine?
I have zero tolerance for this kind of bullshit. Through them in prison. And when I say prison I don't mean "let them watch tv in a dorm room" or play tennis or work on a farm.... If it was up to me they would never leave their cell and get nothing but bread and water. I am so not joking here either.
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For starters, you make a lot of assumptions in the first paragraph. If a person breaks into a car and if they steal your cellphone and if they have drugs and gun on them and if and if and if. Let's look at reality. Reality is that a guy is going to smash your window and take your phone (if you left it in the car) or something else. This has happened to me twice. Once they took the $3 in change I had in the ashtray and the other time they stole my stereo and the car battery. Were drugs involved, I don't doubt it. Were these hardened criminals with guns? Probably not. They were just desperate junkies or stupid kids. Do I want someone who broke into my car to be punished? Certainly. Do I want them to go to jail for 10 years? Fuck no.
Sending a junkie away for behaving like a junkie isn't helping anyone. That person is just going to get out of jail and return to a life a crime. The facts show that people who serve more than 18 months in jail will have a 83% recidivism rate. Clearly, the system isn't working. I would suggest if a junkie breaks into a car and steals a cell phone they first go to rehab then they do some kind of community service and/or volunteer work. We work to help them get some training so they can get a job and become a productive member of society.
When we just throw everyone in jail nothing comes of it. All we are doing is creating better criminals. If you lock people up and you treat them like animals with shitty living conditions and bread and water they will become animals. If you want to throw people into the clink and create monsters then let them out to roam the quiet countryside, get your torches ready because no good comes of that.