"Do not put children in jail"

OK Sugartits, next under 18 year old rapist or murderer the police catch, they'll drop off at your house.

What about that kid that shot up a bunch of people over a fucking bike back in the 1990's at the mall in Federal Way? Wasn't he like 12 or something? What's the suggestion for monsters like that? Ground them and take away their X Box?

What do we do with youth like this then:

"a juvenile Caucasian female, was arrested for the death of Emmanuel Gondo, who was found shot to death inside his car in the Rainier Valley area on February 10."

Boeing receives massive tax breaks, constantly forces its employees to work overtime to keep up with demand, and still struggles to stay afloat. Something is not right.

The medical literature suggests that one in every 25 persons (4%, in case you're bad at math) is a psychopath.

Not every psychopath engages in criminal behavior. Many become highly successful officers in corporations, politicians, and military leaders. These however tend to be psychopaths with a relatively high IQ, family connections, or something else to check behaviors normally restrained by a moral conscience. This isn't always the case (Cf. Robert Durst), however it is true more often than not. The realization that one cannot achieve success in business or politics after being convicted for murder tends to reign the ambitious yet amoral in.

The majority of the population (96%) is not psychopathic. When these folks engage in harmful behaviors, there's some underlying (i. e., reformable) cause. It could be poverty (you've got a criminal record that prevents you from finding honest work, and you've got to survive somehow, or you just drew a really short straw on the day you were born that has held you back ever since), religious ideology, a crime of passion, having failed in with a bad crowd or under the charms of someone who actually is a sociopath. All of these things can be dealt with in ways far more constructive than merely locking someone up.

This doesn't mean total prison abolition is a good idea- 4% is actually a hell of a lot of people when you think about it. There is no way to reform a psychopath. You cannot teach someone to have a moral conscience, no matter how earnest your Hallmark Channel sentiments might be.

That said, the number of prisons needed is far fewer than what we have now. If we reserved imprisonment only for those who cannot be reformed due to a total lack of moral conscience, and looked at the social determinants of crime instead, we won't need to dump money on a prison system that doesn't benefit anyone. We can also look at victimless crimes, which aren't really crimes at all. It doesn't harm society if you engage in prostitution or use drugs. We should look to Insite in Vancouver BC as a model of how we can move away from the Drug Warrior mentality to methods that have some grounding in medical science.

The protestors here are correct. I am disappointed in Dow Constantine. We can do better than this. We are the most progressive and forward thinking state in the Union. This isn't some backwater shithole like Alabama. We need to think the kind of bigger thoughts that have led us to prosper in other areas while places like AL drown in their own ideological nonsense. And here, I think that WA big thinking should lead us to addressing the root causes of crime and to abandon the discipline and punish model.

@6, yes the left does show it's own racism in interesting ways. Certainly on Slog

@1: Well look who's back with a brand new name!
Tell me have you talked to your partner about your fascination with cuckholding yet? Maybe during that trip to Hawaii you keep talking about would be a good time.

@12, we aren't supposed to ask those questions.

@7 just because you post racist things here all the time does not make "the left" racist. We disown you.

@12 & 13: Oh boys....
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and…

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/cr…

The Pew link is being weird, my apologies. :)
Here's another link on this topic for you.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95580

@14, Why are you scared to meet me and discuss your problems with me in public? I'm more than willing to meet you any place you pick

@17:
We all recall what happened the last time you got all big and bad, and tried to challenge blip to duke it out in the flesh. When someone (me) called your bluff, you vacated Slog for more than a week.
@18: As far as Ferguson sucking your ass goes, perhaps you and Zarna might form a support group to discuss these desires you find so shameful yet compelling.

@ 14, @ 19,

Please do not feed the trolls.

@20: While I appreciate your concern, I've been picking on the deserving here on Slog for close to a decade, and I am not about to abandon such a diverting hobby, particularly since they've become so emboldened by These Our Troubled Times (tm).
:)

IF and that's a big IF this kind of legislation passed.How would it be enforced?Police officers searching peoples homes based on mere suspicion.Dont think so.Officers waiting at shooting ranges.Dont think so.But you go for it Bob