Trump Administration winds back Obama-era protections for transgender prisoners

[nycguy1]

the chickens have come home to roost. keeping people locked up decade after decade into senior citizenship and even beyond makes zero sense for humanity or any given society (obviously it makes all the sense for prison-service-based-economies):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/nat...ing-in-prison/

LOOK at the picture of the old man with a walker and grandma in a wheelchair. WOW. i can only imagine they will stick me up and burglarize my home and run away with it all. yeah. they are a real threat to society.

[mildcigar_2001]

Once again, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

A lot of folks respond to this thread should think about the victims of crime.

For example, if you gruesomly murder someone when you are age 30, don't complain that you are still in prison at age 80.

Society needs to send the message that if you commit a crime that you are going to serve out your full sentence; that you don't get a get out of jail free card just because you turn 65.

I have little sympathy for the perpetrators of crime. If you rape or murder someone when you are young and healthy, don't come looking for forgiveness just because now you are old and frail.

[SanDiegoPervySage]

Most people incarcerated aren't in there for rape and murder. Not everything requires a full sentencing. The reason prisons and jails have been overcrowded is largely due to the war on drugs with over the top sentencing. Punishment alone doesn't deter crime. The death penalty doesn't deter murder.

Nobody is saying forget the victims, but the punishment approach with no focus on rehabilitation doesn't work. Prisoners need educational, vocational, mental health, job placement services, etc. When they don't get the help they need, of course they are at a greater risk of recidivism. Like mentioned before, man prisons have a lack of resources, including medical. They can't afford to have doctors of any type there full time, just nurses. A doctor may visit a couple times a stilfor a few hours. Now personally, I I'm conflicted about murderers and rapists getting out early even when they are old but they are a small percentage of all offenders.

[Stavros]

A lot of folks respond to this thread should think about the victims of crime.
For example, if you gruesomly murder someone when you are age 30, don't complain that you are still in prison at age 80.
Society needs to send the message that if you commit a crime that you are going to serve out your full sentence; that you don't get a get out of jail free card just because you turn 65.
I have little sympathy for the perpetrators of crime. If you rape or murder someone when you are young and healthy, don't come looking for forgiveness just because now you are old and frail.

I think the point is to ask what is justice, if it means a man with three minor felonies can because of the 'third strike and you're out' rule spend the rest of his life in prison?
In the US, the average annual cost of life imprisonment is $31,286 though it varies in specific states, in New York State the annual cost is around $60,000 per inmate. In Europe, whole life tariffs are considered to be inhumane, and only imposed in the most serious cases where the convicted is considered too dangerous to be released. There is also the case of those who are convicted of crimes they did not commit (I didn't do the crime, but I did the time), as well as those in prison for offences which did not involve violence against the person. Lastly, unsatisfactory as it may seem, prison policy is not about the victim, but society's judgement of the criminal, and in the US where we are led to believe Christianity is the dominant religion, it is in those states apparently dominated by 'Evangelical Christians' that there is a significant lack of Christian love and forgiveness, fundamental though it is to the Christian faith.

[blackchubby38]

Once again, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

A lot of folks respond to this thread should think about the victims of crime.

For example, if you gruesomly murder someone when you are age 30, don't complain that you are still in prison at age 80.

Society needs to send the message that if you commit a crime that you are going to serve out your full sentence; that you don't get a get out of jail free card just because you turn 65.

I have little sympathy for the perpetrators of crime. If you rape or murder someone when you are young and healthy, don't come looking for forgiveness just because now you are old and frail.

You can still have sympathy for the victims of violent crimes and want to see the perpetrators punished to fullest extent of the law, while at the same time think there are parts of the criminal justice system that need to be reformed. Especially when it comes to the war on drugs, prostitution, and other non-violent crimes.

There are many people who absolutely belong behind bars. But for the others who happen to find themselves on the wrong side of law, after they have paid their debt to society, they should be given the opportunity to become productive members of society again.