========== "TLN" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: "I like Georgia and South Carolina. They have prisoners clean up the trash. Love seeing those striped shirts along the highways. Chain gangs are alive and well in the deep south." ========== And that's something to brag about? I've tried to be good and just read stuff and not get too excited about anything but then along comes a post that just makes the hair on my neck stand up. If you're so proud of Georgia and South Carolina, then you will LOVE Florida where there is at least one prison in 78% of its counties! A number of states now have prisons in almost one-third of their counties. In 1923 there were only 61 prisons in the entire US. ========== Folks like you are the reason the number of state and federal inmates between 1980 and 2000 soared by 312%! During this same time period, our population only grew by 21%. How can you justify a prison population which has grown 15 TIMES faster than our non-prison population? ========== You can call me un-American or un-patriotic or a terrorist or whatever other non-thinking descriptive you use to marginalize folks who think like you don't but those are the facts. It's not politics . . . it's accounting -- simple addition and substraction but mostly multiplication. Texas and California -- the #1 and #2 incarcerators in the nation are finally realizing they can no longer afford to play this game and their incarceration levels have begun to decline slightly. Interesting that they only examine a program when it becomes no longer affordable and the state is risking bankruptcy. ========== Matthew 25
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." ========== Here is some more info that I don't expect can change your mind but others may find useful: ========== The US prison population per capita is three times higher than "axis of evil" country Iran, five times higher than Tanzania, and seven times higher than a civilized European country like Germany. ========== Almost one-half million Americans are in prison for drugs-only offenses. Many of them are innocent or were encouraged by federal agents or informers posing as friends to transport small amounts of drugs as a favor. ========== Many other innocents are in jail because police dropped small packets of drugs -- or in the Texas cases bags of ground up wallboard -- into their cars when stopped, allegedly for traffic offenses. ========== One can't help but wonder whether the US itself is in need of liberation. Extremists would sooner die than change their mind so I must ask, "What amount of evidence would allow YOU to change yours?" ========== sail4free ========== We'll never forgive. We'll never forget. Fight the rich, not THEIR wars! Vietnam Veterans Against War ========== ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/z1TolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To reply to this message, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Boondocking/post?act=reply&messageNum=7507 Please do not reply to this message via email. More information here: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/messages/messages-23.html <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Boondocking/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
