Sometimes the headline to a NY Times piece says it all:
NO WAY OUT: To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars
By ADAM LIPTAK
Driven by tougher laws, thousands of lifers are going into prisons each year, and in many states only a few are ever coming out.
Exactly what did they think ‘life in prison’ meant?
quackquack
Is this phenomenom “driven by tougher laws” or just proper enforcement of those that have existed?
ppGaz
The article answers your question, and expands on the topic.
“Life in prison” has meant, and continues to mean, a variety of things. Always has. Not news, not rocket science.
John Cole
Yeah- by all means read the article. I just found the headline funny, particularly the ‘NO Way Out’ portion…
Nathan Lanier
I’m going to have the song from the intense car driving scene in Rocky IV stuck in my head all day now.
“There’s no easy way out, there’s no shortcut hooome!”
Larry Bernard
Wow……. The NYT will soon have another blockbuster story
“Ice is cold; scientists say”
TallDave
They get cable TV and three meals a day, at taxpayer expense.
Cry me a river.
demimondian
Well, they get the three meals a day, anyway. You should, too.
If you aren’t, then you should probably talk to the warden about whoever is stealing your food.
Andrew J. Lazarus
I thought the usual plan was to release them right before death so the expenses of the final illness and funeral aren’t paid by the taxpayers.
rayabacus
It would be nice if some newspaper would take the time and space to address the disparity in the sentencing of convicted criminals. I realize that there is a lot that goes into each individual case such as prior convictions, capabilities of defense counsel (which includes economic disparity), etc. Yet one can get 30 years in Indiana for pot possession and that same amount of pot would get you a ticket in California.
In my local newspaper last year (The KC Star) there were two articles side by side regarding two criminal defendants being sentenced. One was a woman convicted of cocaine possession with intent to distribute who was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The other was a man convicted of second degree murder for a drive by shooting and he was sentenced to 5 to 10 years.
Right now the US has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world with over 2 million people in prison. At roughly $28,000 per prisoner per year that is 56 billion dollars per year and growing. That figure does not include the billions of dollars that is spent supporting the families of those incarcerated.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of people in prison that deserve to be there. Murderers, rapists, pedophiles, burglers and robbers, etc. I just think that we are creating another “industry” with our disparity of laws and our failed “War on Drugs”.
ppGaz
Tall Dave is just back from his monthly sensitivity training.
Stormy70
I think there are alot of drug prisoners that should be in rehab, not prison. Prison should be for criminals, not people getting high and committing no other crime. If one is in prison for pot possession, they should be released. That is all.
jobiuspublius
ROFLMAO, good pick, Cole. NY Times vs. The Onion. That’s the beauty of free markets. Businesses are free to compete in any way they see fit. My voodoo doll is on the Times and the prison industry.
Mr.Ortiz
ppGaz, that must be the Barbara Bush school of sensitivity: “A lot of these inmates were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”
The headline is funny, the article is actually thought provoking if you’re capable of thought.
Oscer Wilde
“I know not wether laws be right, or wether laws be wrong.
All that we know who lie in goal is that the wall is strong, and that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.” Oscar Wilde.
Much could I say of crime and punishment, as much as has been said before, but spare a thought, nae more than one, for all those who lay incarcerated, they being the victims of shoddy and frightened governments and judiciarys. Spare a thought each day for those that languish in despair, in fear, and injustice. Spare a thought for those that suffer arbitrary justice, whose crimes are victimless, their biggest crime being that , by their innocuous lifestyle, are conceived by they that sit in judgement, a threat to society.
We pass this way but once, and no greater crime upon one’s deathbed, shall be the crime of unfullfilment.
TallDave
I’m supposed to feel sorry for criminals? Please.
My taxes go to feed, clothema dn house them, because they broke the law, and I’m supposed to be sensitive to their plight too?
Fuck them. I was underprivileged too. I got a job and made a life.
TallDave
Oh, and I agree with Stormy. Imprisonable crime should, as a matter of constitutional right, be limited to those actions that actually harm someone: rape, murder, robbery, embezzlement, etc. Drug use is either harmless or merely stupid.
Oscer Wilde
“and I’m supposed to be sensitive to their plight too?”
You might try it.
It is the measure of a man.
M. Scott Eiland
TallDave has it right: “Cry me a river” was a phrase made for dealing with scum like the murderer dealt with early in the article. Now, if the issue is whether non-murderers who got life for recidivism should be released after they’re old enough to be less of a threat–after careful review with a bias towards public safety–then I might be interested in listening.
Fred
$28,000 per year per low-life scumbag. Sounds like a solid financial investment to me. For comparison, what is one innocent life worth? One family? One productive business? $28,000 per year, hell it would be a bargain at twice the price.
Also only the most ignorant, bleeding heart num-nuts would worry about the number of criminals sentenced to LIFE that actually serve LIFE other that to note that it is still NOT 100%.
Don
The “boo hoo, they get three meals and tv” statement always makes me laugh. I get the flu and on day four of being unable to leave the house I’m majorly stir crazy. And I get to eat what I want when I want, sleep in a comfy bed, watch DVDs and tivo, and it’s a house, not a 8×8 I share with another person. If you think prison should involve regular hot needles and random hose-downs, find, but saying it’s not suffering because there’s cable tv? You have a higher opinion of the comforting values of series television than me.
Oscar Wilde
Don.
May I put your feelings thus.
Incarceration is the punishment of DEPRIDATION OF FREEDOM. The sole punishement should be the DEPRIDATION OF FREEDOM, the conditions that prisoners are held should reflect on the humanity of the society that holds them.
To be locked up in the Hilton for six months/sixty years is to be DEPRIVED OF FREEDOM.
The US penal system will never affect me, I live in the UK, but when I read some of the comments on this site I shudder.
Balloon Juice is the one “non left” blogs I visit in my “favorites” folder, it is the only right /centerist blog I bestow with this privalige, all other right wing blogs sit in my “hate groups” folder, for the most part justifyably so. And from the few comments I have made, and read others response, I think 50% of the contributers to this site should file themselves under “hate groups” Why are you so full of bitterness, where is your humanity?
Don I don’t know if you, or anyone will read this as I think this post is heading for the archives, you seem like a decent fellow, if you wish to drop an email to this side of the pond please do so through John with my blessing.
It’s late here, I’m off to my pit, excuse spelling.
Oscar.