10. Don't Commit Crimes.
Seems pretty obvious, but those who are locked up (and are actually guilty) didn't seem to get the memo that crime does not pay.
9. Get a Good Lawyer.
Far too many people, particularly minorities, wind up in the clink not because of the fair trial that they have a constitutional right to, but because they didn't have adequate defense. In fact, the court system's publicdefenders are underfunded, understaffed, and overburdened, and in many cases so much so that they cannot provide an adequate defense for the accused, leaving them at the hands of an unconvinced jury and prosecutors looking to score again. Get a lawyer, he'll get you off the hook and get you a second chance most of the time. That's all some people need to get in a straight line.
8. Support Businesses That Build Rural Economies.
With much of America's farmland disappearing, rural areas are becoming desparate for places to employ their idle populations. Politicians from those areas lobby for funding to build state prisons, so that their people are employed, and the areas essentially depend on inner city crime to justify the funding. In many states, although inmates cannot vote or participate in society like everyone else, they are counted as part of the population, thereby justifying more funds for those areas. When farms, mills and plants that are in small, rural communities subsist, there is no need to build prisons to replace them.
7. Support Drug Rehab Centers.
Drug addiction is not a crime, it's an illness that is treatable, thank God. For the amount of money spent on trying, housing, feeding and providing health care for people locked up due to drugs, a small fraction of that money could be spent rehabilitating drug addicts so that they could permanently get the monkey off their backs, thereby destroying the market for dope.
6. Don't Elect "Tough on Crime" Politicians
With this kind of stat, it should be abundantly clear that none of them really are, but they will certainly enact stupid, draconian laws like "Three Strikes" to make it seem like they are crime hardasses. Instead, vote for crime prevention, community counseling, and youth intervention candidates. And most importantly candidates who are strong advocates of increasing funding for traditional public education. In a populous nation like America, crime is just as normal as dental plaque. But preventative measures can reduce both.
4. Get Out, Stay Out
One of the main points the Pew Center report brings up is the number of recidivists -- or people who keep going back. They make up a large number of people who are incarcerated in this country. In fact, if it weren't for them, the 1 in 100 stat wouldn't be nearly as high.
5. Beat Your Kids
Child abuse is very bad. Don't hurt 'em. But applaud mothers who knock the hell out of their kid in public for smarting off at the supermarket. Court houses have lines around the block of young people whose parents thought it was cute for them to act like little ghetto birds when they were four -- and would curse out any adult who challenged that notion. But now at age 18, when you are taking out a second mortgage on your home to pay legal bills, that cute crap doesn't work.Big secret: judges hate cute.
3. Crackdown on Rogue Gun Dealers
Remember the D.C. sniper? Well between 1997 and 2001, guns sold by the clown who supplied him were involved in 52 crimes, including homicides, kidnappings and assaults. Still open to this day, the dealer also can't account for 238 guns or say whether they were stolen, lost or sold, or if their buyers had to undergo felony-background checks. These chumps keep in close contact with the supportive gun lobby to make sure gun laws that would scrutinize them remain weak, so they can sell guns to anyone with an itchy trigger finger. This report from the Brady Center tells the story of one punk gun dealer who did not care what kid wound up dead or what kid wound up in jail as long as he made money. And neither does theNational Rifle Association.
2. Threaten Your Children
This relates to #5, and is very important. You know about the ratio of high school dropouts in jail to educated people who are not in jail. Okay, just to drive the point home, the National Educational Association says 75 percent of all people in America who are state prison inmates are high school dropouts. This means if your child quits before he or she graduates high school, there's a one-in-three chance you'll get a 3 a.m. call saying: "Mama, I'm in jail, I need youto come get me." What you do from there is up to you, but I'd leave their little butts locked up.
1. Quit Getting High.
More than half of the people imprisoned in this country are doing time because of drug offenses. Ronald Reagan's "War on Drugs" was moronic rhetoric at best, designed to galvanize conservative white politicians who hate black people, and their Religious Right constituents. And I can certainly see the merits of legalization as alternative. But piggybacking off #7, the fact of the matter is dope creates an illicit economy of marketers, investors, speculators and has a verylarge consumer group. That consumer group drives the whole thing. If there were no market for dope, then nobody would sell it, and the number of people in jail for drug possession and trafficking would tank.
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AP