It's hard to single out the minorities in America
If minorities have this double standard,why did Obama get elected president?...

WOW Let them that are perfect cast the first stone.

I think your idea that someone "finally" cared about you is hogwash. People have been caring about you through out your life. Teachers, doctors, the mailman, the people who check out your groceries, and the people who wiped your bum when you were a kid. Even the people who lock your butt up doing their job day in and day out.

I am really glad for some reason you have finally connected to the idea that you are important to the world and have much more potenial than to be a common criminal. Hopefully you will continue to be the man your dog and girlfriend deserve you to be. Hopefully you will realize they are not the only ones contributeing to your success and count your blessings from society rather than it's slights.

I spent a good part of my yesterday sitting in a court room watching
one after another get sentenced to jail time. The majority of these
people were young men, a few girls from 18 to 30. Most of these
jail times were for repeated drug offenses. I have seen many young
people come out of jail with no change... including my own son.
To me it just makes sense to put the money into rehab and fix the
problem , not just put a band aid on it. The money that is spent
housing drug addicts could go to centers that many actually change
their lives...not all of course. Jail is for punishment, not rehab
I understand. However these are the young who will be the majority
of our society..would it not make more sense to help them with their
addictions than to punish...?

^I could write a book on this subject, but I'll spare you the details, anyhow prisons are nothing less than warehouses of human flesh these days, and many have even been privatized which is a huge problem because the companies that own them aren't interested in rehabilitation, only numbers and keeping the cells full because that's where they make their money....The sad thing is that many are going to prison for petty stuff and just sitting around learning nothing but negativety and by the time they get out they are so bitter towards society that they end up killing someone or their pernicious behavior esculates to a degree where they can not fit in in a normal society....I love what Red said in the "shawshank Redemption" to the parole board,

Red: Rehabilitated?
Well now, let's see.
You know, I don't have any idea what that word means.
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, it means you are ready to rejoin society...
Red: I know what you think it means sonny.
Red: To me it's just a made-up word
Red: A politician's word; so, young fellows like yourself wear a suit and a tie

and that's about the size of it

Hope and change...false pretenses. Guarantee the world and everyone will vote for you, politics is a dirty business.

My point is that the legal system is flawed heavily, relying on a flawed system only creates more flaws within society. Fear on the other hand has a distinct way of dealing with flaws, and usually succeeds in eliminating the flaws.

If one goes to the probation officer and says I need help, I'm struggling with my addiction...here in my town I know for a fact they do not have a program. I speak factually because I know first hand, I am referring to my own son. His probation officer told him he better piss clean and hold down his job and make the fine payments...otherwise he was in violation and would go back to jail. My son has not been to prison, he is not a felon...this is through the County Jail system. Maybe in prison ya get more help, hopefully we will never find out.

The people on the street are the bottom of the drug food chain---Thats what we see and thay are the ones we put in jail- over and over. The "war on drugs" never gets high up on the drug food chain. To much money being made. We will never solve it as long as the drugs are there to be had.---get rid of the people at the top. Cut the snakes head off. The body will die. To do it you will have to get rid of most of the people in Washington DC-- And keep that kind of rabble from coming back.

I figure give them one chance with the justice system to go to re-hab and let them identify they have a problem. to many times I've seen people use the system just to get out of jail time. Do the 30 days in re-hab and say ha ha screwed the sytem again. I know recovering alcholic 3 years clean thanks to re-hab. Seen to many people come in there and take up space while others truly wnat it.

Except that the change has to come from them. Even the court ordered 2 year rehab doesn't have a perfect record of rehabilitation.


You can court order them all you want but if they haven't reached the point in their mind and hearts that they want to live a different life there is nothing you can do.


It is cheaper for the courts to send them into a jail than a rehab. Plus the rehab centers for the most part are not lock down so they can leave when they want to.

In my very humble opinion, the reason we DON'T do better than we do, is that it costs money. Because it costs money, AND people don't care much for criminals, when it comes time to vote, most people vote for the politician who says they'll spend LESS on "helping" criminals.

The real tragedy to me, is that I think we'd all be better off INCLUDING monetarily, if we spent what we needed to to take care of the mentally ill.

There is no court ordered rehab in this town..I have asked that of the courts, it is not even an option here.

As a mother I agree..seems to be the un popular opinion. But I'm use to that...

smokem if you got em i quit last year but could go for some right now

fire it up...

state prisons r a lot worse.i know from my son.and i know just what u mean about no prgrams so they just send them back and all most care about is a pay ck and how many they can knock down

been there dont want to go back ever

actually county jail is worse than prison

ya all you do is sit but a an r is the worse