you guys need more information

My name is Bradford Platt,
My comments about crime is that I have some experience in that area. I think that some of the people in prison are the victims themselves of the justice system. Because of the over jealous prosecutors and money hungry lawyers. Lots of people are in prison because they are victims of circumstance. That father that was forced to shoot or kill the man that tried to rob him or his house, in some cases this is the man that is imprisoned. Because he do not have the proceeds to accommodate them both.
I also agree that if you foot the crime, the time belong to you. It may be that the criminal can wiggle his way out it, but the time still belong to him. Lots of criminals buy their way out of prison. The criminal and the lawyer eat dinner together, the lawyer and prosecutor eat lunch together and the prosecutor and the Judge have toddies together in chambers. In that respect a known criminal walks and on the other hand the one that life does not depend on criminal behavior is victimized simply because he cannot satisfy the egos of the afore mentioned. Crimnial activity is apart of both perspective.
I believe that lack of rehibilitation in the prisons is for the most part one the main reasons why the stats on crime is still in tact. All the schools have been taken out, there are no programs for the straight timers, being forced to work without pay or any other incentive for that matter. A good citizen that somehow have gotten him/herself tied up in the wrong choice can go to prison because of a mistake and come out a career criminal. Simply because of no rehibilitation in the system.
I believe in punishing crime, I believe in time fitting the crime and I also believe that rehibilitation while detained can anyone remain undetained and productive in life.

Bradford

Violent crime rates are on the rise and it is expected that will continue to increase through the rest of 2009. The major reason why many people are committing violent crime, which includes robbery, is because of financial hardship. We all know that crime flourishes when wages are low and unemployment rate is high. And that’s what happening now in our country. Financial desperation often leads to desperate acts. In Mesa, Arizona- a serial robber is being sought after he had gone on a criminal tangent, robbing a payday loan store, a pharmacy, and 3 hotels. He committed all of these offenses brandishing a knife and demanding money. Hopefully he held on to the money, because he's going to need all of it plus a few more Online Payday Loans for his legal defense.

Our system needs to be re-vamped. It has become unweildy and inefficient. Prisons are over-crowded because our sentences are too long but not harsh enough. Prisoners adapt socially in prison (especially over extended periods) and cannot then return to society. Insufficient personnel to handle the volume leads to abuses of power and less qualified candidates. Police are treated with suspicion for the same reasons. Judges who engage in criminal behaviors maintain their benchs because fewer and fewer people are interested in the service which is part of the job... they want to be lawyers who make money and judges who make money, not people who uphold. We as a society seem to have forgotten that we cannot please every person, every time, yet we still try to do so.,

The public screams for longer sentences but screams louder when more prisons are needed. The system is not perfect and at times the innocent will be convicted and the guilty will go free; Americans are outraged by this but if they are summoned for jury duty, they do their level best to "get out of" serving; they deliberately seek to remain in the dark and powerless because their DUTY is inconvenient.

If the citizens of this country are no longer in being citizens and part of their communities and country's voice, then it is time to change how we address criminal issues.

Jen