Search found 4 matches

by chasfm11
Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:23 pm
Forum: The Crime Blotter
Topic: League City: Burglary suspects arrested
Replies: 11
Views: 976

Re: League City: Burglary suspects arrested

seamusTX wrote:
chasfm11 wrote:Some of this is pretty easy to fix. Cell phone jamming equipment is available,...
Cell phone jamming is illegal under federal law. This is a hot topic. You can search the web for it.

I agree the law can be changed, but someone has to lobby for it. The extent of prison corruption is not widely known until it turns into a sex scandal, and then the news-consuming public just twitters and smirks about it.

Legislators are busy advancing their own pet projects. In this forum we say that you can't prevent crime by fettering law-abiding citizens, and I agree. However legislators and public officials on both sides of the aisle are quick to do exactly that, requiring registration of over-the-counter antihistamines and going on witch hunts for pornography and prostitution.

P.S.: Again, it's easy to say that government can't spend more than it takes in. Fine, that's obvious. State prisons are paid for largely by state sales tax. County jails are paid for by local real-estate tax and the county share of sales tax. If we want to spend more on prisons and jails, something else has to give. That could road construction and maintenance, schools, policing, Medicaid, parks, etc. A small number of lines items are a big proportion of the budget.

TANSTAAFL.

- Jim

I also understand the free lunch problem. Your registration of anti-histamines is indeed a great example of how I'm monitored and criminals are not. Those programs cost money and if the cell phone traffic out of the prison were monitored (hospitals have prohibitions against cell phones so there is no reason those could not be made in prisons, too - then the only traffic coming out of the facility would have to be deemed illegal) My point is that there are ways to get underneath some of this and the money is better spent there than in the constant catching, trying and re-incarceration of recidivists.
by chasfm11
Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:10 pm
Forum: The Crime Blotter
Topic: League City: Burglary suspects arrested
Replies: 11
Views: 976

Re: League City: Burglary suspects arrested

Some of this is pretty easy to fix. Cell phone jamming equipment is available, though I admit is not cheap. There should be video tapes of visitors which could be monitored for bribe situations. I realize that this costs money, too.

My opinion is that rather than the government spending so much money to monitor everything that I do, the same amount of money would completely clean up the prisons. They are only spread so thin in the criminal justice system because they elect to spread themselves into so many things where they do not belong.
by chasfm11
Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:00 am
Forum: The Crime Blotter
Topic: League City: Burglary suspects arrested
Replies: 11
Views: 976

Re: League City: Burglary suspects arrested

seamusTX wrote:
I'm not convinced that prison sentences are a deterrent to the kind of people who commit violent crimes. Those people are either too stupid to consider the consequences of their actions, or think they're smart enough not to get caught.

BTW, the closure rate on crimes like burglary and robbery is around 30%. Those are not great odds, but better than roulette.

- Jim
Nor am I. I understand that a stay in the "big house" is more likely to refine whatever skills that they have rather than dissuading them from future errant behavior. That said, a few years off their youthful exuberance is not necessarily a bad thing in my view. If they cannot be reformed, separating them from society seems like the only opportunity to protect the rest of us. It sure beats re-arresting and trying them multiple times within the same period.
by chasfm11
Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:05 am
Forum: The Crime Blotter
Topic: League City: Burglary suspects arrested
Replies: 11
Views: 976

Re: League City: Burglary suspects arrested

seamusTX wrote:
Now they have a slam-dunk felony conviction for a used iPod that probably is worth $100.

- Jim
What are the chances that they will receive punishment in line with a felony conviction? I haven't seen many cases around here where this type of conviction results in any punishment that is likely to act as a deterrent to future bad behavior. Perhaps the League City DA will have a different approach. I'd be willing to bet that this wasn't the first time that these two fine upstanding fellows have been the subject of police attention. It sure seems like career criminals figure out that our legal system is more of a speed bump than an impediment to their pursuits. They are more than willing to try and learn from their mistakes (i.e. getting caught) and try again soon, maybe before the ink is dry on the deferred adjudication forms.

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