Flash, it depends on (1) whether that prison actually gets built, or instead they just keep crowding them in until some federal judge releases a bunch of them, and (2) how "violent crime" is defined.
Keeping a gun tucked under your shirt while selling pot is a "violent crime" in some jurisdictions. I've heard of stealing a gun in a burglary and trying to hock it being called a "violent crime" for the purpose of imposing a 3-time loser sentence. (The other two crimes were nonviolent escapes from prison, for a conviction that was overturned.) It's like the idiots who define skinny-dipping as a "sex offense" - ultimately it overloads the system to the point that the designation becomes useless as a way to identify the really dangerous ones.
3 comments:
Did they just open up a new prison? Because they're going to need one...
markm
New prison? I'm all for it. The cost of building prisons dwarfs the costs of the crimes violent offenders commit when they are paroled.
Flash, it depends on (1) whether that prison actually gets built, or instead they just keep crowding them in until some federal judge releases a bunch of them, and (2) how "violent crime" is defined.
Keeping a gun tucked under your shirt while selling pot is a "violent crime" in some jurisdictions. I've heard of stealing a gun in a burglary and trying to hock it being called a "violent crime" for the purpose of imposing a 3-time loser sentence. (The other two crimes were nonviolent escapes from prison, for a conviction that was overturned.) It's like the idiots who define skinny-dipping as a "sex offense" - ultimately it overloads the system to the point that the designation becomes useless as a way to identify the really dangerous ones.
markm
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