Since the same people insist on posting the same (mostly partisan) political threads, I figured I'd create one about a potentially political topic that has bothered me for awhile now. That topic is young lifers.

For those who don't know, there has been a major push over the past few years to free all juvenile lifers (those sentenced to 25+ years as juveniles) and to make it illegal to sentence juveniles to terms like that from now on. This is great imo, so long as they aren't rapists or serial killers or something.

However, there are far too many people who either will never again see the light of day or only will as old men for something they did when under the age of 25. To me that isn't right unless it was something awful done towards an innocent person.

It is things like this that make me sick and tired of hearing people talk about "The Drug War". There is no drug war except on mostly people of color from urban communities and the places where drugs are either grown or wholesaled. I would bet money that 99% of cases where white suburban kids are caught with drugs don't end in jail time. Meanwhile, entire generations of black and brown people have lost their lives or been locked up for a long time over it.

To me, that's fucked up and not okay. Granted, some of the people being locked up have killed witnesses or other people not directly in the game but it's the money of (mostly suburban) buyers paying for literally every aspect of any drug organization and yet they at most get ARD. I've even seen suburban white kids who rob people get sentenced to ARD! For those who don't know what that is, it's a program meant to defer people from continuing down a bad path. It's an absolute joke.

We have entire generations of people who are forced to grow up with the drug trade in their neighborhood and understandably get involved in some way being locked up and painted as murderous invaders but meanwhile it's in fact those precious victim addicts invading these neighborhoods to get their fix or walk on the wild side, and they're able to either play the victim their entire life as an addict or recovering addict or at most talk about their "wild years". Meanwhile, many are forced to be around it from birth until death, even if they don't get directly involved. And those are the people being blamed.

We have dealers now being charged with murder because a junkie ODs, junkies being revived at the cost of the taxpayer while they close schools and other necessary places, all the while being told it's not their fault.

There's something incredibly wrong with that imo, and we need to do something about it. Either lock up both sides of the drug trade or start recognizing that locking up people for life over some shit they did entirely because of the danger and violence fueled by the largely outside demand for drugs is wrong.

Anyway, I'm off my soapbox now. I'd like to hear what other people have to say on the topic.

 

The entire system is fucked. The only way to fix it would be to start over from scratch, which we all know is impossible.
They need to look more into how mental health causes people to commit certain crimes and get them the real help that they need, rather than allowing sick people to rot. They also need to take a deep look into how all crimes affect society, and sentence accordingly. Which crimes are really worth putting a person in jail for their entire lives? Murder? Rape? Violence? Violence toward animals? Drugs? Theft? Etc.

Also, people need to either not have kids if they don't want them or be responsible for them once they do... because after working with kids in the mental health field... it was always usually the parents fault for their kid being the way they were. People are legitimately horrible to their children in ways that you cannot even imagine.

 

It just pisses me off because I have seen it from both sides. I come from more "regular" folk and have been around that all my life but have also been around very suburban people just as much, and I have seen the disparities in how much leeway each is given. I went to high school with legit dealers, for example. Some of them were good dudes who it was obvious might not be doing it if not in a position where they felt they had to. Others of course weren't. None of them ever bothered me or had an issue with me for the most part. I've played basketball with people who were that or very well could have been. Being around people where you don't ask too many questions is pretty natural to me. So I don't get why people can't see the humanity in them but can in people who willfully go into places they don't belong in order to get their fix.

And I don't see why some kid who comes from very little can be locked up for robbing people at 16 or something yet somebody who looks like they could belong in any family sitcom does the same thing when older and gets off so light. I've even seen suburban dealers get a slap on the wrist no matter how many guns were found.

 

Remember when Casey Anthony was too pretty to go to jail? Lol.

 

My boyfriend thinks she is innocent.. >_<

 

It was my way of saying since people keep doing it, I might as well make one too.

It was long because I wanted to make it clear what this thread is specifically about and why I feel it's important.

 

Drug buyers are criminals too, dude.

Want to stop drugs? Stop letting people buy without consequences.

I'll tell you right now... Make it majorly illegal to buy drugs in a zip code where you don't live and watch how quickly shit changes.

 

i dont agree that we need to end it all together because some of these "kids" are just as evil as an adult is, they do know what they are doing
dont blame the drugs or the schools or the system that is just fucking chicken shit lies
here in texas at the clemens unit in brazoria texas there was a kid named snow that at age 14 was convicted of the rape and murders of 3 female family members
he barged into a house of a girl he went to school with and beat, raped, and killed the elderly grandmother
he waited in the house watched tv and ate, even drank the beers in the fridge for the mom to come home for lunch
he was behind a door and hit her in the back with a baseball bat, he dragged her up the stairs and tied her to her daughters bed and repeatedly raped her
he beat her bloody and once she was out he tied her to a chair overlooking the bed
the daughter came home after school and he was waiting(this kid laughed about it all even after 2 years in prison)
he forced the mom to watch him rape then kill the daughter, then he raped the body before he killed the mom
as he left the little brother was coming home from practice and he met him at the door covered in blood and told him to have a good time