On The Popular Topic Of Drugs And Prison

[indicabush]

ON THE POPULAR TOPIC OF DRUGS AND PRISON OVERCROWDING, NO ONE GETS IT QUITE RIGHT

"Over the last few decades, we've also locked up more and more nonviolent drug offenders than ever before, for longer than ever before. And that is the real reason our prison population is so high."

- - President Obama, remarks at the NAACP Conference, July 14, 2015

"Two-thirds of the people in our prisons are there for nonviolent offenses, mostly drug related."

- - Businesswoman Carly Fiorina, remarks at the GOP debate, Sept. 16

"We are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana."

- - Sen. Bernie Sanders ( Vt. ), remarks at Democratic debate, Oct. 13

"We have a huge population in our prisons for nonviolent, low-level offenses that are primarily due to marijuana."

- - Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, remarks at debate, Oct. 13

If there ever was a bipartisan consensus on an issue, it seems it would concern the "war on drugs" and how well-intentioned but poorly crafted laws led to mass incarceration - so much so that 25 percent of the world's total prison population is in the United States, even though it has only 5 percent of the world's population.

Link:

 

[THCdurk]

It's funny they go to jail and they be in jail smoking blunts. Lol.

 

[NaturalTherapy]

IMO this is a natural consequence of ending slavery in a country built on slave labor. "They" can't just enslave people for no reason so it's necessary to come up with arbitrary laws that make illegal the most common human behaviors.

 

[indicabush]

If they can't get you one way they will get you another way.....(Mississippi I believe is just one these Southern States)

The Return of the Debtors' Prison

The debtors' prison was supposed to be a thing of the past--a relic of the colonial era that was outlawed by the United States government nearly two centuries ago. More recently, the Supreme Court ruled that jailing people who lack the means to pay criminal justice fines or fees--a modern-day form of debtors' prison--is unconstitutional. Ultimately, debtors' prisons are not only illegal, they are counterproductive: incarceration strains limited public resources and can have devastating consequences on the lives of the poor.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-d-romero/the-return-of-the-debtors_1_b_8220964.html



Debtors' Prison Legal In More Than One-Third Of U.S. States

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...re-than-one-third-of-us-states_n_1107524.html