About the only thing we agree on, mule.

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So you're cool with murderers & rapists picking up trash in your neighborhood, interesting.

:) Isn't it NewHampshire where the plates they make read Live free or Die ?

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Did you ever think it just to easy here? A friend of mine got out and could not make it on his own, wanted back in, gets fed, housed, activities, entertainment, all fee without working, its no wonder.. He was just plain lazy, in fact so lazy he is in for trying to print money!! You have to make these people want to get out, then you will see a drop..

If we legalized and taxed most of the recreational drugs out there the prison population would greatly decline, we'd quit manufacturing a criminal underclass and balance the budget in little more than a heartbeat.

But try finding a politician (either left or right) with the guts enough to admit that much less do anything about it.

If you believe that prison is so nice that any rational thinking individual WANTS to live behind bars, you are totally & completely out of your mind. Get a grip.

"If we legalized and taxed most of the recreational drugs out there the prison population would greatly decline, we'd quit manufacturing a criminal underclass and balance the budget in little more than a heartbeat."

Lots of drugs out in the underground market have a legal equivalent drug. (prescription) Do we open it up ...get rid of pharmacists?

:rolleyes: You're just not getting the big picture Mule. You can sit and cherry pick the non-starters all day but in the end there is a large pool of strong backs that are not being put to work. Murderer's and rapists, hardcore felons, these folks would not make the short list of candidates working close to the general public.

I believe a lot of states already let non-violent offenders out on work release and they have to come back to prison only to sleep at night. When I worked at Wendy's in high school, we had negative unemployment in our town. I was making $7 an hour flipping burgers in 1988! So they hired some women from the local correctional facility. They took a van to work, couldn't leave the premises for their entire shift and then took a van back to prison after work. Before you had to be 18 to buy smokes, they always asked me to go to the gas station across the street to get smokes for them. One day one of the ladies, took customer's purse, ditched her uniform and walked over to the local mall for a shopping spree. After that they were all sent back. Not sure if they got another work release gig.

FWIW, I've heard the Sherriff Joe's chain gangs are a very coveted gig for prisoners who just want something to do. I think it's considered a privilege to get on one. It's not quite the same thing as a Willie Horton weeknd furlough.

One of us isn't getting the big picture, but it's not me. Watch the video. Incarcerate as many as possible & farm them out for cash doesn't exactly sound like the land of the free.

If they're in there anyway, might as well put them to work.:D

We could incarcerate traffic offenders, code violators, minor tax offenders and jaywalkers. Think of the revenue that could be produced. In fact, if we jailed everybody but me & a few hot babes, I could be king!

video no worky . . .just spinny - / | \ -

I heard from several sources last night that the crime rate has been relatively flat and actually declined in some areas while the quantity of people incarcerated has steadily climbed in the same period. Attributed to harsher sentences, third strike law, and more people staying their full sentence or close to it. Parole has been politicized and so fewer parole boards are willing to take a chance letting someone out even if they think they won't pose a threat. I can't blame them. If I sat on a parole board I'd be worried about someone I let out going and violating, hurting, killing someone else.

Oh and by the way, it's 1 out of every 100 adult Americans overall. It's about 1 out of 36 or 37 hispanics and 1 out of 15 African Americans. Read into it what you will.

Try this link. http://www.leap.cc/link/134

From what I understand the unions put the kibosh on prison labor - they projected it taking work from them.

We could arrest smokers, re-institute alcohol prohibition. There's a ton of potential here. Ugly women, let's outlaw ugly women too.