Prison industrial complex - local version

[Mouse]

Out of this weeks paper, here are the things you can go to jail for years for:

Curtis Goodwin, 31, Sparta, received two years for possession of methamphetamine.

Jeremiah Kaberlein, 18, was sentenced to two years for violating his probation. He was on probation for property damage and stealing a firearm. He violated terms of his parole by using illegal substances and absconding from probation. His sentences are to run concurrently.

Joshua Hendricks, 30, was sentenced to five years for violating his probation by failing to obtain employment. He received five years on three separate drug charges, all to run concurrently.

James Simonsen, 32, was sentenced to five years for possession of methamphetamine.

Kimberly Williams, 25, received three years for passing bad checks.

Curtis Barton, 25, received five years for both burglary and tampering with a motor vehicle. The sentences will run concurrently.

Gerald Schroeder, 18, received two years for resisting a lawful stop and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident.

Kathryn West, 54, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine and received a three-year sentence.

[Phoenix]

I'll expect the typical cries of "freedom!" but I think that meth heads should be shot.

Marijuana, mushrooms, opiates, LSD, DMT, even Cocaine HCl USP, are beneficial substances, which should be decriminalized. But meth, that shit serves no purpose other than destruction. And people who peddle it and use it are disease floating around in the social bloodstream.

[Mouse]

You can't snuff out one form of drug freedom over others. Meth is terrible stuff, regardless.

My point was more along the lines of the guy that got 5 years for failure to obtain employment (as a convict, no less and in this economy), and the other person sent downstream for 2 years for not pulling over for a revenue stop.....

Just sayin'

I don't care if you like to do your drugs, but years in jail for simple possession?

It's broken as shit.

[Skirnir]

For failing to find a job, everyone else must pay to make sure he does not find a job for the next five year. This regime is just silly.

[Phoenix]

My point was more along the lines of the guy that got 5 years for failure to obtain employment (as a convict, no less and in this economy), and the other person sent downstream for 2 years for not pulling over for a revenue stop.....


Neither of those occurred as stated.

"Joshua Hendricks, 30, was sentenced to five years for violating his probation by failing to obtain employment. He received five years on three separate drug charges, all to run concurrently." (he got leniency, and then threw that leniency away)

"Gerald Schroeder, 18, received two years for resisting a lawful stop and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident." (I have zero sympathy for hit and run drivers)




I don't care if you like to do your drugs, but years in jail for simple possession?


I don't believe in prisons. Like I said, meth should result in death. As a compromise, we can establish labor camps to rehabilitate them. But letting meth heads run free is like letting habitual criminals run free; actually, they're one and the same. People don't burglarize homes for pot; they do for meth.

We also don't know how much meth these POSs had "possession" of. Grams or kilograms? The former is personal use, the latter, for sale.

[Mouse]

My point was more along the lines of the guy that got 5 years for failure to obtain employment (as a convict, no less and in this economy), and the other person sent downstream for 2 years for not pulling over for a revenue stop.....


Neither of those occurred as stated.

"Joshua Hendricks, 30, was sentenced to five years for violating his probation by failing to obtain employment. He received five years on three separate drug charges, all to run concurrently." (he got leniency, and then threw that leniency away)

"Gerald Schroeder, 18, received two years for resisting a lawful stop and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident." (I have zero sympathy for hit and run drivers)




I don't care if you like to do your drugs, but years in jail for simple possession?


I don't believe in prisons. Like I said, meth should result in death. As a compromise, we can establish labor camps to rehabilitate them. But letting meth heads run free is like letting habitual criminals run free; actually, they're one and the same. People don't burglarize homes for pot; they do for meth.

We also don't know how much meth these POSs had "possession" of. Grams or kilograms? The former is personal use, the latter, for sale.


I understand your post and agree that meth/crack heads are dangerous. That aside, there are no employment opportunities available in this county for sober non-convict men. So the guy got five years for his parole violation: The crime of having nothing to pay.

The meth/crackheads could be served by rehab and repeated clubbing (if necessary) and don't need to be living in the prison. It would be cheaper to make each meth addict come to town every week and do piss or hair test than to put them in jail. These people are like pot smokers, it's just that meth is the thing they are into. If the gov would stay the hell out of it, the damn meth heads could make their sh*t, smoke it, kill themselves, and we could just move on with minimal cost to the taxpayer. There is no reason to refuse to let people exercise their constitutional right to suicide. Darwin will take care of the meth-heads.

I would like to see some proactive legislation here as I have land that would grow pretty good hemp and I could make some money. I won't go near anything like that since I could lose my house, cars, concealed carry license, and every other thing you can imagine over one plant found growing on your section of land. There could be some kid getting high and drops a seed, produces a plant on your section, and now you get two years?

The war on drugs is as fake as the war on terror.

[Phoenix]

There is no reason to refuse to let people exercise their constitutional right to suicide. Darwin will take care of the meth-heads.


If they'd stay the Hell away from good people, I would agree 100%! Unfortunately, these tweaker SOBs will do anything to get more or make more, including blowing up apartment complexes.




The war on drugs is as fake as the war on terror.


Agreed, control is the motive, not community protection. If community protection were at heart, hard liquor would be the first target.

[UFM]

there is no war on drugs. its on you

[Fortyone]

although these terms seem harsh, I would bet ,If one looked ,had prior offenses. My feelings on drugs are simple. If it grows naturally, legalize. If it needs to be refined, or made from different chemicals, shoot them.

[Joe King]

There is no reason to refuse to let people exercise their constitutional right to suicide. Darwin will take care of the meth-heads.


If they'd stay the Hell away from good people, I would agree 100%! Unfortunately, these tweaker SOBs will do anything to get more or make more, including blowing up apartment complexes.If it were legal, the price would get cut by a huge amount. Thereby allowing them to have part time minimum wage jobs and still be able to afford their habit.

The way it is now, there's no way a true meth head can hold down a job that pays enough to support their habit due to artifically high, prohibition induced prices.

That said, I don't want anything to do with meth heads any more than you do, Phoenix. But it'd sure be nice if they could support their own demise.




The war on drugs is as fake as the war on terror.



Agreed, control is the motive, not community protection. If community protection were at heart, hard liquor would be the first target.
Prohibition doesn't work for any of it.

On an aside, it sure is "funny" that it took a whole Constitutional Amendment to make alkeehal illegal, but for anything else a mere Congressional majority will suffice.
I wonder why that is? ;)

[palani]

Here is one heard on an audio file I was listening to. The guy speaking had spend time in federal prison with a former gun shop owner. The ex-gun shop owner was serving 5 years. His crime?

Two FBI agents in civies walked into his shop. They were posing as a man and wife. The gun owner shops wife took care of them. The FBI "wife" chose a handgun, filled out the paperwork and paid for it. Her FBI "husband" picked up the handgun and together they walked out of the shop.

The shop owners wife got sentenced as well but the time was not reported.

And don't feel bad about taxpayers funding people in prison. These people all fund their own incarceration. It is all done through Miller Act bonds ... bid, performance and payment. The reason for such long sentences is to obtain the most "profit" for the system. G Bush jr's momma (Barby) runs the federal prison commissary.