Monday, July 11, 2011

Roundup: The Brain on Trial, and other stories

Here are several items I noticed this week that may interest Grits readers:
Why should crime victims be so involved in this process at all?

What about those victims who don’t mount a campaign because it’s simply too painful? Or because they’re too overwhelmed trying to scratch out a living? Or because they prefer to forgive and forget?
Should their perpetrators get a pass to earlier parole?

On the other hand, should a massive letter-writing campaign automatically mean more time for the perpetrator? And should 100 letters translate into more prison time than 10 letters?

These just don’t seem like useful factors in deciding when someone is ready to be released from prison.
We might wish there were no parole at all. I get that. But the economic reality is that we can’t build enough prisons to hold inmates for entire sentences. And on a practical level, parole motivates prisoners to behave, maybe even to improve themselves while behind bars.

I say let’s give crime victims the chance to write one letter expressing their desires about parole. Put it in the file and leave it there. If their feelings change, they can write again.

But crime victims shouldn’t have to mount repeated anti-parole campaigns. They shouldn’t feel it’s on their shoulders to keep perpetrators behind bars.

Being a crime victim shouldn’t be a job.

16 comments:

  1. So we want to put a "Caylee's Law" on the books that wouldn't have made any difference in the Caylee Anthony case had it happened in Texas (even the defense admitted at trial that the child was never missing. It can't very well be a felony to not file a missing kid report on a kid who was never missing)?

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  2. sure it can! this is AMERICA!

    we reserve the right to make

    EVERYTHING ILLEGAL

    including breathing if we feel like it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Say No to Secure Communities! Keep the border open!

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  4. Yeah! Screw enforcing immigration law! Viva Mexico! Down with the USA!

    I just want to be an American. :)

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  5. I have heard every form of B>S about how an open border helps the US.

    Bottom line, if you want to be a citizen of the US you need to go through some form of socialization process whereby you master english in order to read critical info. in the US. Get a job and pay taxes vs. becoming a subsidy parasite.

    If you are a US citizen and don't believe that incoming citizens should pay their dues like everybody else... pack your shit up and move to Mexico. While you and your family are there dodging bullets, being held for ransom, and can't get enough education to read a comic book... you can tell your neighbors how much you hate the US border policy.

    Is there a website to donate to Secure Communities anywhere?

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  6. Anon. 7:20. Hate much?

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  7. Rodsmith, you are correct sir! I've said for years that the end of the U.S. will occur with a whimper when the last free American turns the key to lock up the next to last free American.

    "Search warrant? We don't need no stinkin' search warrant, this is the US of A! This is the home of the knave and the land of the third degree"

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  8. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is one of the ten members of the Progressive Coalition.

    We oppose the Karnes detention center because in a nation of immigrants, immigrant detention is a human rights violation and a crime.

    Oponemos al centro de detenciones de Karnes porque en un país de inmigrantes, la detención de inmigrantes es una violación de derechos humanos y un crimen.

    We oppose the Karnes detention center because we want an end to all immigrant detention.

    Oponemos al centro de detenciones de Karnes porque queremos el alto de todas las detenciones.

    We oppose this “civil” immigrant detention center because there is nothing civil about immigrant detention. Let’s call it what it is, a prison.

    Oponemos a este centro dizque “civil” porque no hay nada “civil” de la detención de inmigrantes. Tenemos que decir lo que es, una vil cárcel.

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  9. Charlie O...

    Come up with something a little more original than political "hate" rhetoric you are simply regurgitating.

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  10. hmm

    "We oppose the Karnes detention center because in a nation of immigrants, immigrant detention is a human rights violation and a crime."

    so is crossing a border illegally and i wouldn't talk much about mexico or have you not seen what mexican AUTHORITIES do to illegals on their SOUTHERN BORDER!

    i have!

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  11. There is evidence that illegals actually work more than native born Americans:

    here

    Its unclear what the anon means by immigrants "paying their dues". I'm assuming he means working within the state apparatus to fill out forms and obey the laws of big government. For me, "paying their dues" means honest hard work, not obeying any laws. And the immigrants are already doing this by and large.

    As a philosophical matter, I believe in immigration because I believe in freedom of movement. I wouldn't want a wall built between Fort Worth and Dallas, nor do I favor walls between nations.

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  12. PirateFriedman said...

    There is evidence that illegals actually work more than native born Americans:

    INDIANS?

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  13. I can't BELIEVE you executed mi carnal Humberto! In Mexico we rape and kill young women all of the time and never even go to jail!

    So, stop detaining us in prisons like LULAC says....

    OPEN BORDERS! VIVA MEXICO!

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  14. well 5:54 i'd be happy to open the border. Of course i'm first going to lace a 5 mile strip with enough enhanced radiation to kill anyone dumb enough to cross it!

    it will of course be marked as leathal to cross.

    Border will be set and protectd for the next 1,000 years or so.

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