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Comment by ryan93 | Hacker News Reader

Way too much sympathy for criminals in this thread. Most people in prison could have trivially avoided being there by not committing crimes. Many of the people in prison imposed a massive cost on their community and its good they have been removed. Considering how many rapists and murders get away with it the prison population should be even higher.

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Amen. We have an under incarceration problem if anything. I can take you to a few places where people regularly steal and fence stolen goods—what about their daily victims? Or all the filthy homeless camps causing environmental damage by dumping trash into rivers and wetlands. Society has gone too far to the other end of accommodation and now just turns a blind eye. This helps literally no one but the bleeding hearts who smugly pat themselves on the back.

Thinking poverty induced crime warrants incarcerating people instead of helping them overcome poverty is a view too cynical to be real. I think that you should reanalyze your empathy towards your fellow man if you're arguing in good faith.

I dont think anyone will sympathize with murderers or criminals, but that half of the criminals are in for non violent crimes such as drug offenses. Luckily the tides on marijuana are changing. Imagine though if half of our prison population wasnt there and instead were in some time of rehabilitation center to get past the drug use and back to be a productive part of society.

How many of those non violent convictions are the result of plea deals down from violent felonies?

How many of those violent crime convictions are police officers stating "Stop resisting!" while putting someone in handcuffs and they trip and fall and get a bloody lip and throw assault at the perp? Sadly these are all "what ifs" and not looking at the actual data in front of us.

I don't know, but I think both are reasonable questions.

We dont know. But not knowing isnt the same as knowing not.

You definitely didn't read the article. It's less than 20%

It's that simple?

There's 40,000 people in prison for Marijuana.

Do they belong there?

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