Excerpt
At any given time there two million people in jail or prison and every day people are getting out/going in. Add another four million on probation/supervised release. And what about the ones that haven’t been caught or who get out of jail free cards (informants)? My theory on fighting recidivism lies in more police -many more police.
I’ve bought and sold drugs thousands of times and I’ve only been caught three times; once as a misdemeanor, twice as a felony. It was marijuana all three times. The chapter in my life as a meth user/dealer has never been written in legal papers. I know I could get a bag for a friend today and not get caught. The benefits of dealing are instantaneous. The odds of getting caught seem nonexistent, better than the lottery and how many people play that? If my hand is swatted one out of every 10-20 times I reach into the cookie jar then I’m going to have my fill of cookies whenever I want. I’ll do it so often that I’ll see them as my cookies and I’ll most likely be upset at anyone who swats my hand away. But if my hand is swatted six or seven times out of 10, those really aren’t my cookies. The odds are stacked against me.
Rather than tougher sentences IF/when I’m caught (because no one plans on getting caught), how about police catch me more often? Take ownership of society’s cookies and swat hands more often. If the odds weren’t in my favor, I wouldn’t be tempted to do it. However, I do believe the length of a sentence should increase with each new conviction.
A lot of times the kids who misbehave for negative attention become the adults who commit crimes. They gain attention from society and acceptance in prison.
Prison will always be a safe haven for me on so many different levels. I had little responsibility, I had no rejection from women and I was never more liked or accepted. I met several hundred people each time I went to prison. With an 80-90% recidivism rate, I’ll always have a friend there.
I will always know at least 100 guys in the Iowa prison system. Unlike what you see in the movies where everyone claims innocence, most of the people I met were guilty. However, it wasn’t their fault they got caught; someone either told on them, they were stopped for a broken taillight, they alleged an illegal search etc. The entire time they’re in, they make plans to eliminate all the possible variables so that when they got out they could do it all again -perfectly next time. When crime is your lifestyle, there’s no such thing as perfect. The bottom line is: if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.