Comments about ‘Jess Rigelhaupt: Mass incarceration hasn't made us safer’

Thought I was reading the Trib for a second. The Dnews publishes letters like this. You don't go to jail unless you are found guilty of a crime after being tried by a jury. There are some people in Jail awaiting trial that are there because they are dangerous on the streets. AS for Blacks it is the same everywhere the only black people that go to jail are the ones that commit a crime. Inventing the race card. Anyone that commits a crime and gets caught should do the time. Parole and probation if prisoners can prove to benefit let them use it. But for the safety of society and appropriate punishment people should be in correctional institutes for the appropriate time. And drug offenses are just as dangerous as they lead to other crimes. That is why there are laws against there use. Same as why we fight cancer early on. If you don't want to do the time don't commit the crime.

Reminds me of a basketball referee in a High School game. Someone said to him let the guys play. He said something to the effect than they better quit fouling. Referees in an athletic event call em as they see them. Same as criminal behavior. Punish someone for there crimes even if it means prison. Except for the most violent of offneders to rehavilitate them and help them produce in society.

I agree that the war on drugs has been fought in a way that has been disproportionately punitive for African-Americans. I agree that much of the war on drugs, especially the war on marijuana has been ill advised. But since we instituted tough on crime policies, our crime rates have fallen drastically, beginning in the early nineties.

Crime rates began to soar in the sixties, and reached truly horrendous levels in the eighties and early nineties. But since then there has been a steady decrease, and we are now back to sixties era crime levels before they started spiking. There is a definite correlation between this and tougher penalties for crime.

We believe in punishment, not rehabilitation. So we punish people and put them back on the street, and wonder why they end up back in jail.

So by his logic, letting all the criminals out would not put us in danger.

Does this guy make money off his thinking?

@Thinkin Man
By his logic not all in prison deserve to be there and we are wasting huge sums of money incarcerating drug offences.
And yes, that man is making money off his thinking, too bad we don't pay more people like him.

I have read a couple of articles recently regarding a recent study that breaks down the legal system data. The well documented conclusion is that there is no evidence of racism in the enforcement of the law or in the judicial system as many have complained for many years. As an example, African Americans are arrested at the same rate that they are identified as perpetrators and there is no indication that they are sentenced more severely than any other race under similar circumstances. You have to get down to the details to understand an issue and so those who have an agenda avoid a thorough analysis.

Excellent article. And has he points out, there's no real societal benefit from mass incarceration. Most offenses are by non-violent drug offenders, who would be much better off with rehab than incarceration. It'd cost less, too.
Prisons should be schools. Prisoners should be taught useful skills, enabling them to function positively in society. Joseph Smith taught this, and I've seen nothing to suggest that he was wrong.
What this article does not address is the travesty that has resulted from privatizing prisons. If prisons are expected to become profit centers, then there's no incentive to rehabilitate offenders, because that's costly.
Of course there are some violent offenders who cannot be rehabilitated. But most prisoners are poor people who have made mistakes. There's a way to balance compassion with justice.

I was under the impression that burglars in prison had committed dozens of burglaries. I would rather they stayed in prison.

Physicians treat the symptom not the cause so why should our legal/penal/justice system be any different?