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What are they thinking???

tygereye

tygereye

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2008
Messages
347
Location
Waterford, Michigan, USA
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I haven't even read the comments yet, but the thought is enough to make me happy I can protect my family!!

http://www.freep.com/article/20090524/NEWS06/905240478/1001/rss01

A nearly 30-year-old Michigan prison policy -- roughly characterized as: "When in doubt, lock 'em up" -- is ending.

In the midst of -- and partly in response to -- the economic crisis, many of the state's expensive prison cells are being emptied.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced in February plans to downsize the state's prison population, by about 3,000 by Oct. 1, effectively ending an era in which policymakers built more prisons, enacted tougher sentences and hired parole board members conditioned to "just say no."

The questions are: Who are the people the state has decided don't belong in prison? Can we be comfortable with them on our streets and in our neighborhoods?

The Free Press attempted to answer the first question by looking at 318 parolees released in December under similar criteria to those being released this year. Most have committed violent acts in the past -- murder, armed robbery, rape and assault, among others. But relatively few -- 29 of the 318 as of late last week -- had gone off the tracks again. None had committed a new, violent crime in the latest months of parole.

The answer to the second question depends on whom you ask. Granholm and top corrections officials insist downsizing can be done safely if enough care is taken to manage parolees before and after their release.

Skeptics, led by the state's elected county prosecutors, doubt it will happen.

"There will be more crime," says Saginaw County Prosecutor Mike Thomas.

I only copied the first portion... This is a very long article...
 
Tao

Tao

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Aug 17, 2008
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116
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Oakland County, Michigan, USA
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This should be easy, but of course political pressure will release the wrong people, and then we have to deal with it.

I have no problem with non-violent victims of the War On (some) Drugs being released.

Anyone with any kind of violent background needs to stay locked up.
 
C

cabman1

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Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
985
Location
Jackson , Michigan, USA
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Tao wrote:
This should be easy, but of course political pressure will release the wrong people, and then we have to deal with it.

I have no problem with non-violent victims of the War On (some) Drugs being released.

Anyone with any kind of violent background needs to stay locked up.
Click to expand...
I dont see drugs need to be put on the top of the police hit list as long as the dealers are selling to adults. I think they need to bust more of these child molesters and other major crimes
 
T

T Vance

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Joined
Mar 22, 2009
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2,482
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Not on this website, USA
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Tao wrote:
This should be easy, but of course political pressure will release the wrong people, and then we have to deal with it.

I have no problem with non-violent victims of the War On (some) Drugs being released.

Anyone with any kind of violent background needs to stay locked up.
Click to expand...
+1000
 
N

northofnowhere

Campaign Veteran
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
232
Location
RTM, Lake Linden, Michigan, USA
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tygereye wrote:
... http://www.freep.com/article/20090524/NEWS06/905240478/1001/rss01
.....But relatively few -- 29 of the 318 as of late last week -- had gone off the tracks again. None had committed a new, violent crime in the latest months of parole.....
Click to expand...
They seem to have forgoten the "caught" part, or perhaps I missed part one of the article where it said 100% of crimes in Michigan are solved.
 
tygereye

tygereye

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Messages
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Waterford, Michigan, USA
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northofnowhere wrote:
tygereye wrote:
... http://www.freep.com/article/20090524/NEWS06/905240478/1001/rss01
.....But relatively few -- 29 of the 318 as of late last week -- had gone off the tracks again. None had committed a new, violent crime in the latest months of parole.....
Click to expand...
They seem to have forgoten the "caught" part, or perhaps I missed part one of the article where it said 100% of crimes in Michigan are solved.
Click to expand...
There was actually another article that I read today, that stated that Michigan had one of the lower "solved crime" rates... Iwill locate that article again, if needed...
 
V

Veritas

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
662
Location
Oakland County, Michigan, USA
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Here's a better idea, I think:

Instead of relaxing the punishment on violent offenders, why not put incarcerated non-violent offenders to work in Michigan communities? Hook 'em to a long chain and put them to work on road repair, cleanups, graffiti removal, brush trimming of urban parries, etc, etc. Not only will taxpayers be saved from the burden of paying DPS workers the cost of doing these mundane things (often at time and a half because they work overtime to do these things), but MORE will get done because many DPS departments don't have the budget to handle these things already.

Veritas for Governor. Thank you very much.
 
B

BreakingTheMold

Regular Member
Joined
May 1, 2009
Messages
298
Location
Niles & Lawton, Michigan, USA
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Sounds good, they already do that for community service people around here. The cemetery, parks and highways are pretty clean. Also, 'Chain gangs' wouldn't do very well in our winters. :cool:

And as for putting them onto road repair etc, that would reduce hundreds of jobs per region(3-5 counties per). Sound good on paper though.

How about make them turn wheels to generate electricity? If all the prison population worked on say, bicycles, that were hooked up to independent generators. They could more then power there own prison. That would save us millions of dollars in the long term. Feed em cheap carbohydrates and simple proteins as well.

Secretary of Energy? :lol:
 
V

Veritas

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Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
662
Location
Oakland County, Michigan, USA
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BreakingTheMold wrote:
And as for putting them onto road repair etc, that would reduce hundreds of jobs per region(3-5 counties per). Sound good on paper though. Sounds good to me on more than just paper. Instead of my tax dollars paying laborers $20 an hour to work on roads AND paying $X per day to house prisoners, I'd rather kill two birds with one stone. Instead of putting people out of work, they can be put on other projects. Living in Michigan, there is certainly no shortage of roads to work on. Let convicts to the simple stuff and put road crews on more advanced stuff... knock out more work for the same price. Edited to add: Plus some of these low-level offenders might have an actual job skill to apply to the real world when they come out... rather than going IN for a minor offense and getting a "thug education" to come OUT and commit greater offenses.

How about make them turn wheels to generate electricity? If all the prison population worked on say, bicycles, that were hooked up to independent generators. They could more then power there own prison. That would save us millions of dollars in the long term. Feed em cheap carbohydrates and simple proteins as well. I like the sound of this too. Instead of weights and basketball courts, give them bikes and treadmills hooked up to power lines. This way they can at least power their own televisions and radios in their prison cells.

Secretary of Energy? :lol: Sounds good to me.
Click to expand...
 
K

Kimberguy

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Jul 10, 2008
Messages
367
Location
Jackson, Michigan, USA
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you want to free up money in the prison system? bring back the death penalty! Murder, rape, child molestation and first time drug dealers. by firing squad or hanging(both inexpensive) Do not announce name when executed cremate the bodies. Your name will be lost in history as though you never existed. the psychological impact would deter crime, murders, rapist and pedophiles would not exists, and if you execute first offense drug dealers, you will have less people buying because there will be less people willing to risk their lives to make a buck. it sounds cruel, but it will work.

Vote for me ruler of Michigan, you want to see the economy turn around in 4 years, jobe return? give me 4 years with no holds bars. It really isn't that hard...
 
B

BreakingTheMold

Regular Member
Joined
May 1, 2009
Messages
298
Location
Niles & Lawton, Michigan, USA
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Kimberguy wrote:
you want to free up money in the prison system? bring back the death penalty! Murder, rape, child molestation and first time drug dealers. by firing squad or hanging(both inexpensive) Do not announce name when executed cremate the bodies. Your name will be lost in history as though you never existed. the psychological impact would deter crime, murders, rapist and pedophiles would not exists, and if you execute first offense drug dealers, you will have less people buying because there will be less people willing to risk their lives to make a buck. it sounds cruel, but it will work.

Vote for me ruler of Michigan, you want to see the economy turn around in 4 years, jobe return? give me 4 years with no holds bars. It really isn't that hard...
Click to expand...

Sounds more like an extreme- communist police state.There are plenty of places you can move to if that's what your after. Like North Korea, Vietnam, etc. Or even better, pre-collapse cold war Russia. 10 years in a Siberian work camp will set ya straight.
 
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