>>>>>>>3 strikes - you're dead.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>California's "3 strikes and you're out" law is a good example of something that sounds good at the time but winds up having lots of unintended consequences. Remember the infamous case of a guy who received a mandatory life sentence for stealing some VHS tapes from a department store? I'm not saying that is the typical case -- some of these guys really should be locked up for the rest of their life -- but it illustrates the pitfalls of rigid sentencing laws.
>>>>>
>>>>>Perhaps he shouldn't have stolen the VHS tapes and committed the other 2 crimes?
>>>>
>>>>No doubt he shouldn't, but I can't conceive of a situation in which a petty theft in and of itself deserves a life sentence. Can you?
>>>>
>>>>Tamar
>>>
>>>I'm not big on having criminals roam the streets. If they can't figure out the difference between right an wrong after several runs through the court system, bye bye.
>>
>>It sounds like you like in a world with a lot less compassion than the one I choose to live in.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>I have no problem if you want to pay to detain, retrain, diagnose, treat, house, feed, comfort, pay legal fees for, pay reparitions for (very important), and ensure nice amenities for career criminals as long as you and others who want this pay the bills and are held directly accountable for any future crimes these 'people' commit.
>
>I'll pay for a bullet (actually I'll make them) or provide the axe to eliminate them permanently or a rubber ducky thay can be dropped off outside of territorial waters in a current that takes them away from the US. I'll help with the labor to put these to use.
>
>I DO NOT CHOOSE TO PAY BECAUSE SOMEONE DECIDES TO BE A CRIMINAL. YOU WANT THEM, YOU PAY FOR THEM.

I don't want dangerous people walking the streets, but if as a society, we decide to throw people away because they commit a series of minor crimes, we're wasting their potential. There are some people whose crimes are so horrible that they need to be locked away where they can't hurt anyone again. But most criminals don't fit into that category and if we ran our justice system properly, I believe most of them can become productive members of society.

Tamar