More Than 3,000 U.S. Prisoners Locked Up for Life Without Parole for..............???

annata said:
do you know the rest of his criminal record?
If not, then you don't know why he got that time. I'm not a fan of the manatory sentencing; it removes the judge from an important function -
might as well have some kind of computer on the bench instead - just program in the data.

That said, this is an anomaly, not the norm like N. Korea.
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Petty theft and drugs, I guess how lucky that they didn't hang, draw and quarter him.
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
Nobody should get life without parole for non violent crimes, it borders on barbarism. That you can't see that is not my problem.
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not on those crimes alone, I agree. I'm all for sound sentencing. Suppose these crimes violated probation for more serious crimes?

In that case the judge has to impose sentence on the previous conviction -it's more common that one thinks, for a career criminla to have multiple probations
and still be walking around.

I do agree with you on the basic point - it would be barbarous - and the 3 strike law is bad law. But you (and I ) don't know his full criminal history.
I'm wondering just how many 3 strikes actually get one inprisioned ( and any is too much, without prior convictions being the reason for prison time)
 
Professor Baxter said:
Mike Lee and Rand Paul both have reform bills. Lee's seems better. Other Republicans might stand in the way.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...e-serious-about-prison-reform-than-rand-paul/
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By allowing judges to depart from mandatory-minimum sentences under certain conditions, both bills essentially turn such sentences from requirements into recommendations. The measure Paul has championed does this for all mandatory minimums; the Lee bill simply expands a provision that already allows for judicial discretion in some drug cases.
But the impact of both measures will be muted by the fact that judges rarely depart from sentencing recommendations in the first place, according to the Urban Institute
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the 3 strike law is the fault of Congres, or state legislators - it has to end. Alot of this stuff is drug madness, thanks for the link.

I really didn't know it had gotten this bad
 
The Dude said:
Jailing someone for life for 159 bucks is fucking retarded and hard ass cold.

I'm rich so waisting tax dollars doesn't mean shit to me
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You are changing your story. And serial criminal activity is NOT petty. No one was jailed for life ONLY for stealing a jacket.

Do you really have to stoop to this?
 
Truth Detector said:
Really; what have Conservatives done to prevent broken homes and what is this "proven" way to prevent single parent households where poor black women think they are entitled to child care for spreading their legs with multiple partners?
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Great question, what HAVE conservatives done to prevent broken homes? Please...tell us!

Re the second part....attempts at making abortions more difficult to attain means fewer women incapable of supporting kids may mean they end up having them anyway.

Yeah....it's sad you needed that spelled out for ya.
 
PostmodernProphet said:
/shrugs......that doesn't change the fact that he wasn't put in prison for life because he stole a coat.....he's in prison for life for being an habitual criminal, which is a completely different story.......
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If he had committed murder, it's possible he could get paroled after 20-odd years. Yet he had four non-violent crimes so he's going to die in prison. That's absurd. It's like saying retail theft is more heinous than taking a life.
 
Lorca said:
You are changing your story. And serial criminal activity is NOT petty. No one was jailed for life ONLY for stealing a jacket.

Do you really have to stoop to this?
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We know two of the crimes were theft and there were two other non-violent crimes, according to the article. I'd like to know what those two were.

"The theft of the $159 jacket, taken in isolation, carries today a six-month jail term. It was combined at Jackson's sentencing hearing with his previous convictions – all for non-violent crimes including a robbery in which he took $216 – that brought him under Louisiana's brutal “four-strikes” law by which it became mandatory for him to be locked up and the key thrown away."
 
More than 2,000 of the 3,281 individuals tracked down on these sentences by the ACLU are being held in the federal system
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so it's not just the states, although I don't know the fed'l statute, this has go to stop. Be nice if Congress would stop politicing , and address this.
 
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