In these times, it bears repeating how silly notions that emanate from academia and activists, like "bail reform" and prison abolition and releasing thousands of prisoners seems, but it poses very real dangers in our society as these dangerous policies are implemented. You'll notice that this was one of those "nonviolent" drug offenders. Naive, ignorant, dare I say, "privileged" people in the upper strata, usually white liberals, are the primary prey and useful idiots who get behind this. It traces back at least as far as Tom Wolfe's identification of "radical chic" in 1970. The current pandemic is being used by these folks to make incremental gains on the policies above, and as everyone here understands, it much more laborious to scale back once policies are implemented than it is to resist them in the first place. Unfortunately, President Dum-Dum, Jared, Kim Kardashian, and most of the Republican delegation have already swallowed this piffle or simply decided to pander, in hopes of generating new votes.
Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8221509/Florida-man-26-commits-murder-DAY-released-jail-early-prevent-coronavirus.html
Can't we just issue them all pink polka dot masks and enforce social distancing?
Non-violent drug offenders should get released. Some of them will commit murder. However, so will some people that commit speeding infractions. That doesn't mean we should lock up people for speeding. In other words, either you believe the sentences for non-violent drug offenses are proper or you do not, but it has to be related to the seriousness of the offense on its own. You can't support harsh sentencing because they might prevent a different crime the offender hasn't committed. That's all Minority Report and shit.
There is a certain group of people who will never grasp this because they are so far removed from the realities of criminality. We treat certain offenses as less serious out of an ignorance of the nature of these crimes. These crimes should be treated much more seriously, thus allowing us to keep them in prison longer, preferably until they reach the age when recidivism rates plummet to about zero. Among those crimes are drug offenses. Most everything you know about drug convictions and prison is incorrect, but it's nearly a lost cause trying to show people this based on actual data about who makes up our prison population. Overwhelmingly, the people in prison for drug offenses are big or repeat dealers and repeat abusers. The proverbial marijuana user is not the person sitting in our prisons. The people who are sitting in our prisons for drug offenses are often gang members and dealers engaged in an enterprise that is based upon violence. Furthermore, drug abusers, who keep these violent people in business, are often violent people, in large part due to the mind-altering substances they use. I'm not saying that we should lock people up based upon what I think they will do, I'm saying that we should lock them up longer because of what they have done and because that demonstrated behavior poses dangerous risks to the general public.
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should be released because of the risk of corona virus. Like they wonโt get it while committing crimes and not social distancing on the outside.
There are some that can be RoRโd, and we get them out. Many though are NOT nonviolent even though they are technically in for non violent offenses THIS TIME.