USA is number one in something, and it ain't freedom.

[Dan Druff]

Only a tiny percentage of those in prison didn't knowingly break the law.

Most of those complaining about the US incarceration rate are doing so from a societal standpoint, as if somehow society is supposed to stop the individual from deciding to commit crimes.

Furthermore, very few in prison are there because they were committing crimes in order to acquire basic necessities. For every guy in prison who was just trying to feed his starving family, there are 1000 who just wanted to get rich the easy way.

The privatized prison system needs reform (though not for the tinfoil hat reasons that judges are supposedly sentencing people in exchange for bribes), but I don't see what we're supposed to do about the incarceration rate.

Ignore crimes and just let people off? That's already happening too much as it is.

Release nonviolent recreational drug users? Okay, but they only make up a tiny percentage of those in prison.

Shorter sentences? I don't think that's a good idea, given that most criminals serve a short percentage of their sentence these days as it is.

Law and Order republicans love putting people of color in jail. It makes them feel safer, but ask those same republicans to pay for it, they are nowhere to be found. Do you want to pay more California state taxes for more prisons Druff? I know I don't.

False. That's a dumb left-wing talking point to make it look like their weak position on crime-and-punishment is based in fighting racism.

Law and Order Republicans (myself included) do not give a shit about the racial makeup in prisons. We just want those committing crimes incarcerated, and those not committing crimes to be free.

I would have the exact same views on this if white people were the ones with disproportionate numbers in prison.

How many Law and Order Republicans have you seen defend a white criminal just because of his race? None. We want the white trash loser criminals locked up for just as long as the black trash loser criminals.

Do I want to pay for it? Sure, and that's where reform of the privatized prison system comes in (again, something most Law and Order Republcans SUPPORT).

The goal of a criminal justice system is not to save money. I hate the line of, "It cost XXXXX dollars to prosecute this crime". Yeah, it did. But that's a better option for society than letting criminals walk free.

BTW, if you want to talk about crime and increased costs for society, violent crime is going up rapidly over the past few years, in part because the strong community policing model, developed amidst a horrible crime problem in the early 90s, is now eroding. This is because of the left's recent vilification of police to where they can no longer feel comfortable doing their jobs.

For example, the number of murders in the first 5 months of 2016 in Las Vegas were DOUBLE the same time period in 2015, and we are seeing trends like this all over the country.

This was after a 23-year period of declining violent crime.

I realize this is a different topic, but that's the real crime issue we should be worried about, not the number of drug dealers in prison.