A Living Death: Life without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses

[Vattel]

Last edited Sat Jan 11, 2014, 09:58 AM - Edit history (1)

For 3,278 people, it was nonviolent offenses like stealing a $159 jacket or serving as a middleman in the sale of $10 of marijuana. An estimated 65% of them are Black. Many of them were struggling with mental illness, drug dependency or financial desperation when they committed their crimes. None of them will ever come home to their parents and children. And taxpayers are spending billions to keep them behind bars.

https://www.aclu.org/print/criminal-law-reform/living-death-life-without-parole-nonviolent-offenses-0

Edited to add: Isn't it absurd that the US Constitution explicitly prohibits excessive fines but because the courts read our constitutional rights so narrowly, we end up with tons of excessive prison sentences?

[FatBuddy]

1. the will to enslave and punish

is strong and undying.

they will think of new ways to subject the powerless forever and ever.

[Vattel]

3. But we need to free the enslaved when we can.

State kidnapping should not be passively accepted.

[FatBuddy]

4. yeah, but

the new season of canadian tow truck hustlers is on . . .

[Vattel]

5. lol, good point

[TreasonousBastard]

2. That's a lot more to read than I expected, but...

for years many of us have been complaining about 3-strikes laws that fill prisons for no reason.

No one seems to care, though.

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. This is an obscenity. n/t

[LisaLynne]

7. And private prisons are making money off of this.

The people making a profit here will fight any attempts at changes.

[ladjf]

8. This is among the worst disgraces America has experienced. nt