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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (4408)	11/9/2003 6:01:25 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Some information: Monday :: June 02, 2003 U.S. Overtakes Russia - In Number of Prisoners From Atrios we learn that we've won--we've finally overtaken Russia. The U.S. now has the largest prison population largest in world . We have over 2 million in jail. That comes to 702 prisoners per 100,000 population. On a per capita basis, according to the best available figures, the United States has three times more prisoners than Iran, four times more than Poland, five times more than Tanzania and seven times more than Germany. The Justice Department reports that one in eight black men in their 20s and early 30s were behind bars last year, compared with 1 in 63 white men. The chance of a black man going to prison in his lifetime is one in three, the department says. The Sentencing Project says a major cause is the war on drugs. Whereas in 1980, there were 40,000 in jail for drug crimes, now there are 450,000, "three-fourths of them black or Latino, though drug use is no higher in those groups than among whites."

To: epicure who wrote (4408)	11/9/2003 8:39:45 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Puritanical laws? I guess you're talking about the drug laws. This is about the only area in which our laws could be considered puritanical. Well, I told you if you disagree with them you just need to convince enough fellow citizens* and they can be changed - given that our legislators are elected. You obviously have a puritanical streak and wish to punish people for certain behaviors that are not per se destructive to anyone else. This must come from my saying that a great deal of suffering is caused by people choosing to engage in things like substance abuse and extra-marital unprotected sex which harms themselves and their families. Apparently you think it's puritanical to even recognize that substance abuse, unwed pregnancy, and STD's are harmful to individuals and families. I think it's just being honest. And, as I said earlier, it doesn't matter whether the substance abuse is legal or not, it's still is harmful to the individuals who engage in it and their families. *But as you seem to find defending your beliefs distasteful, it's unlikely you're going to be very effective in convincing anyone of anything. Better to simply gripe to the like-minded about how bad and mean the people who disagree with your views are.