Texas conservatives reject Harper's crime plan-say it will cost billions & jail many

[bmdbley'sBro]

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Texas conservatives reject Harper's crime plan

17/10/2011 10:10:58 PM
CBC News

Conservatives in the United States' toughest crime-fighting jurisdiction - Texas - say the Harper government's crime strategy won't work.

"You will spend billions and billions and billions on locking people up," says Judge John Creuzot of the Dallas County Court. "And there will come a point in time where the public says, 'Enough!' And you'll wind up letting them out."

Adds Representative Jerry Madden, a conservative Republican who heads the Texas House Committee on Corrections, "It's a very expensive thing to build new prisons and, if you build 'em, I guarantee you they will come. They'll be filled, OK? Because people will send them there."But, if you don't build 'em, they will come up with very creative things to do that keep the community safe and yet still do the incarceration necessary."

These comments are in line with a coalition of experts in Washington, D.C., who attacked the Harper government's omnibus crime package, Bill C-10, in a statement Monday.

rest:
http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/home/co..._plan/2b172224

there'll be things in it like 'minimum mandatory sentences' - like 2 years in jail for a joint or for 'alarming' someone online...

[Nick_V]

Please show me where you're seeing "2 years in jail for a joint". I seem to remember reading that they want minimum 6 mos. for 6 plants or more. Still messed up, but I think you're exaggerating a bit...

[chromius]

Nick_v is right.

Mandatory minimum for production (6-200 plants) is 6 months

Possession with intent to traffic has no minimum for a basic offence, aggravated offence is min 1yr, secondary aggravated is 2yr. (possession with intent to traffic has to involve more than 3kg of marijuana)

List of factors which make the possession w/intent aggravated:
-Used for the benefit of organized crime
-involving the use or threat of violence
-involving the use or threat of use of weapons
-by someone who was previously convicted of a drug offence in the previous 10 years
-through the abuse of authority or position.

List of factors which make the possession w/intent secondary aggravated:
-in a prison
-in or near a school
-in concert with a youth
-selling to a youth


Anything less than possession with intent to traffic isn't included in this bill, so whatever the penalty is now (A fine I think), is what it stays at.

[sirex]

throw everyone in jail i say

the only people that should be left in our society are the ones that are willing to work as slaves for the corporations.