Sherrif wants to charge Michael Phelps

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by richlevy

I think if you want to have a law changed, the best way to do it is to be fanatically overzealous in it's enforcement.

If they'd busted GWB and his well connected friends and they'd faced up to 18 months in jail back in the 80's, Texas would have the loosest drug laws in the country by now.

If you consider that it cost $20-30,000 a year for each prisoner, as a taxpayer you have to ask "Is it worth it to me to spend that much to keep this guy off of the street". For rapists and murders, the answer is yes. For some guy with a big bag of pot? "No".

Since even minor drug arrests count towards "three strikes", you're building a large prison population composed of people who were not well connected enough or wealthy enough to aggressively resist conviction.

So, get busted for possession 3 times and it's 25-to-life in California. This is why California has the most expensive and overcrowded prison system in the country. From a liberal and libertarian point of view, this does not make any sense. The courts have already ruled on overcrowding, and many non-violent offenders will be released. If I told the average citizen that a state was adding hundreds of bureaucrats a day at 20-30K, they'd be outraged. But everyone equates more people in jail as being safer.

For marijuana, this is not the case.

California's jails are SO overcrowded right now (they are at double capacity or something), they might have to let out almost 40,000 prisoners soon. What do you want to bet they let out dangerous criminals and keep the druggies in? Because of mandatory sentences. It's friggin' ridicuolous.