Michigan Votes Forum

why do you KEEP TAKING the bait? is life THAT BAD under that bridge?

problem 1. we are paying too much for prisoners. option 1. release inmates. option 2. cut the per inmate spending. problem 2. there are too many drug related inmates in prison. option 1. release inmates. option 2. change the drug laws. problem 3. there are too many 'non-violent" inmates in prison. option 1. release inmates. option 2. build more prisons. problem 4. 40% of released inmates re-offend. solution 1. DON'T release inmates solution 2. DON'T allow inmates to return home/to their "loved ones" after release. make it a condition of their release that ANY contact with ANYONE who they knew before their sentencing will automatically violate their release. in other words, keep them away from ALL the bad influences that they were exposed to.

what court were you in? these people give plea bargins for anything. the point is that they don't want to spend the money to take people to trial. they don't give a damn about good coming out of the plea bargin. they just don't want to spend any money on trial. and, as for the rest of you idiots that say people should serve every day of their sentence, no matter what the crime and that we should build all these new prisons, 1- i hope you realize that you're talking about making money off of, basically, human trafficing and 2- i'm gonna laugh when some of you or someone you know end up in prison for some stupid crime and you start cryin' about how you shouldn't be there and you should get good time. because, i will remind you that michigan incarcerates its citizens at a rate faster than any other state. if anyone really wants to educate themselves on the true state of the prison system in michigan, go to the CAPPS website (citizens against prisoner and public spending). these are the people that right most of the articles you read in the paper about the prisons

robbery and burglery don't always involve another person. if i break into your house when your home that involves you. if you're not home, it doesn't involve you. that's the difference between a 1st and 2nd degree home invasion. and other charges are the same way

1- everyone on parole is required to pay a supervision fee of $900 and 2- by not haveing to spend $30,000 a year on a person in prison it gives them alot more money to get new parole officers and hire more police

it kills me to see all these ignorant comments by people that have no idea what they're talking about. do your research before you post a comment. if nothing else, it will keep you from looking like an idiot

HOUSE are you breaking into? mine, both times. the law is different because a burglar who enters a known occupied dwelling can be said to have bad intentions towards the occupants. in some states, you are instantly 'fair game' when you break into an occupied dwelling. many states have 'shoot the burglar' laws in effect. every crime that has a VICTIM involves another person. not being present at the time the crime was committed doesn't mean you were not victimized.

these people in jail WHY? IF there is more money to be made from keeping an inmate on parole than there is to be made from keeping him in jail, why keep him? because he is a danger to society, that's why.

so, what crime did YOU plead out to, as opposed to what crime did YOU COMMIT? was the plea a 'bargain' for you? if not, why didn't you take your chances in court? don't tell me some 'gumshoe' tricked you into pleading to a more serious offense.

i'd like to know the answer to that one too. as a cop from louisiana, i'd like to hear "how it's done here". just out of 'professional curiousity'.

I believe that the public does not realize how many people are FALSELY imprisoned!!!!!!! We need a better system, this one is NOT working!

you misunderstood what i said. they only make $900 off of every parolee for supervision fees that the parolee has to pay. however, they get $30,000 for every inmate they have in prison. besides from that, they make all sorts of other money by having people in prison by creating jobs for gaurds, construction to build prisons, and all sorts of other things. did you knonw that prison gaurds account for like 2/3 of all michigan goverment jobs? it's true. i keep telling you people to check out the capps website.

i said the crime wasn't considered violent. read what i write, not what you want to see before you respond to my comments

i'm not gonna get into writing it all here because there's alot to get into and i don't feel like writing it all (i spent 13 months fighting my case before i pled guilty and went to prison), there is alot to my case. all together i was charged with 13 felonies in 4 different cities. i only actually did 5 or 6 of them. i pled guilty to 6 charges. 2 of them i actually didn't do and the discription of one of the other charges was completely false. that caused my sentencing guidelines to raise and i did about 2 years extra because of it. (i did 3 1/2). i have seen, firsthand, what this system is all about. all these comments i post are not just me making things up or telling you what i heard from someone else. these are things that i know. now, i said that i didn't feel like getting into all my stuff here, but if you really are interested to see how the justice system works and would really like to see what i have to show you can contact me by e-mail at ninjaxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com or on myspace at myspace.com/ninjaxxxxxxxxx (that's 9 x's). i would be more than happy to show anyone this stuff.

all about the EXPENSES. now, show us where they MAKE MONEY. paying guards and building prisons is where money GOES OUT. collecting fees is where money GOES IN. and how, exactly are they supposed to collect these fees? the parole and probation departments cannot keep up with the workload they have now. what are we supposed to do, make probation and parole the biggest payroll item on next years budget instead of prisons? look what it cost the state to release ONE INMATE by mistake.

six felonies, you plead guilty to six. maybe not a 'bargain', but you seemed to have plead guilty to the crimes you actually committed. while you were at it, you COULD have confessed, and 'set the record straight' instead of letting some investigator 'fill in the blanks' and get you a higher sentence. now, i'm curious, you said that they were going to try to charge you with SEVERAL MORE felonies? what were the chances of making any of THOSE felonies 'stick'? how much time COULD you have gotten if you had gone to trial as opposed to how much time did you get? all these questions go to the issue of 'adding on' time.

okay, show us ONE FACTUALLY INNOCENT PERSON who is doing time in jail.

what you said was... "robbery and burglery don't always involve another person. if i break into your house when your home that involves you. if you're not home, it doesn't involve you. that's the difference between a 1st and 2nd degree home invasion. and other charges are the same way" now, the difference between what you SAID and what you MEANT may be great, but at least TRY to say what you mean. a burglary(home invasion) is indeed a violent crime. the victims feel violated, abused, almost helpless. no, they are not "personally" injured, at least not physically, but they are 'harmed' in that you have taken away their ability to ever feel 'safe' in their home again. it's why they usually choose to arm themselves to prepare for the next 'invasion'. burglars voilate the sanctity of the home like rapists voilate the sanctity of the body.

how many of your six felonies were caused by your "situation" or your "social status"? how many can you blame on being "poor"? were they "accidents" or did you actually mean to commit them?

we have such a good time laughing about how out of touch with reality they are. They talk about being right and then they themselves sleep with pages and get rehab for addiction to painkillers. HYPOCRITES!

What rock did you crawl out from under? Why do you think that there is a national justice program? Why do you think that since DNA evidence has been admitted that many individuals have been released because they did not committ the crime? People who were convicted because of their "fitting the profile or description", not based on hard facts. Now I don't believe that is everyone in prison don't get me wrong but don't kid yourself that it doesn't happen please! The fact is that there are people who go to jail wrongly accused and convicted and there are also those that do their time for what they did and come out and live a changed life afterwards. The point is that some people are so oblivious to the fact that we all are one stupid decision away from the same place these inmates are now and you never know when in tough times what you are capable of and until you can say never don't presume to judge anyone else based on an obviously bad decision. Shit happens but yes they can change and I've been witness to a few that have. I also agree with the fact that their are those who are violent criminals but these bills do not pertain to them because if you are this violent you will continue the same behavior while incarceration. The same things you can do on the streets you can do in there so it does take a concious effort on behalf of the inmate to choose the right road even if it was the wrong road that landed them there. Sometimes it takes ending up where you find out where you don't want to be to trully know where you do want to be. Only those totally without sin can judge another remember that.

I think you talk just to try to hear yourself you sound like one of those!!!!! First of all in many cases these inmates families tried a whole lot to keep this from ever occurring. Some families tried intervention, and many other things to avoid this so your little bait of families on this website is disgusting! Why don't you and your family do us all a favor and move out one less judgmental, no doubt hypocrite in this state to deal with. You are probably just mad because you don't have a family that claims you!

it DIDN'T happen, we are waiting for you to come up with one time that it DID.

with you. we have a guy on here that committed SIX felonies. were they ALL mistakes? you want everyone to leave michigan so it can be you and the libs and the criminals. you need a good heavy dose of reality. criminals are NOT the good guys, stop treating them like they are.

commit SIX FELONIES and then complain about good time.

reply. if you don't agree with the far leftists, pack your gear and move your rear. THAT'S A BIG PART of why this state is in such trouble now.

a witness to 'A FEW' that changed. how many? did YOU change? what changed you? was it the education you got in prison? was it the rehabilitation? or was it the reflection you did while serving your time?

we see ...

And Troll some more

think all criminals are the good guys did I say that? Answer:NO What I did say was to quit trying to bait the families that post here with your nastiness. It's fine to have a different opinion, I don't agree with yours but i respect that you are entitled to it. What my problem is with you that if you have never been in that situation with a family member you will never know how hard most try before the inmates life got to incarceration so to say that a inmate should never be able to have contact with his loved ones is #1.ignorant #2 a slap in these families face without knowing anything about what they have or have not done. So before you choose to bash families of those incarcerated think because it could happen to you and then we will see what you think about the struggles that an inmates family goes through. It's not your job to preach to anyone here on this site without knowing each person you preach to experience. That is the problem with most conservatives they think things like this can never happen in their family WRONG and they also want to press their views so hard on other people that anything good they might have to say gets lost in the fact that they always think they know about everyones circumstances. Now while I don't classify myself as a liberal, I definately do not agree with pissing on someones family that you know nothing about, and butting your nose in uneducatedly in their lives!!! I can't speak and don't try to for all inmates but I will tell you this I have seen lives change after incarceration and I am a firm believer in rehabilitation possibilities for those who want it bad enough. What I am not a firm believer in is thinking you know about everyones life to the point that you say something stupid like not being able to contact your family. Most experts today will tell you that having a loving family(which yes most were before incarceration) can increase your chances of not reoffending! Now I agree wholeheartedly about not being able to see those people who committed the crime with them or who is on paper themselves, but do not piss on the families, most of whom have tried before the crime was committed to help and have chose to stick by their loved one to try to aid in them becoming a productive member of this society. You ought to be so ashamed of yourself for even mustering up enough balls to write something as hateful and as ignorant as that, we are tax payers and productive people in this community and I'll be dammed if you or your kind tell me or my loved one that we can not see one another. Sorry I did make one typo what would take balls would be if you told some of these families that in person so you could actually get told to your face the lengths some of them went to help their loved one before incarceration, but you wouldn't do that because you'd rather keep living in your dream world and behind a computer where you don't have to see what the real world is!

first of all like i have already stated i do not classify myself a liberal but what i do disagree with is pissing on someones circumstance that you know nothing about. I believe that some of you just get on here to purposely degrade families of those incarcerated and I think it's about time someone said something about it. Their are alot of us out here who support this bill as a taxpaying citizen in this community because unfortunately for some of us this bill will not even help our family members so for people to think we are uneducated or that we only want this bill because we have a family memember incarcerated is just you thinking once again that you know everything. Everyone wants to make this a liberal or conservative issue but really when it comes to just being downright nasty to a family who you know nothing about it;s not about that it's about respecting your neighbors and understanding that if the family helped committ this crime they would also be incarcerated so it is not anyones job conservative or liberal to disrespect them in any kind of form or fashion. I think some of you need to reevaluate your behavior towards others and realize that these families are just like your family in many ways and don't deserve nor will tolerate rude unitelligent comments.

there are too many to list so what you need to do is go to google and type in "people wrongly convicted" and there are numerous sites that you can choose from that will tell you some of them hear? Do that and them holla at me!

there you go again assuming that I have been incarcerated. I am a college graduate, full time wife and mother, employed full time, and a tax paying memember of this community. I just happen to spend some of my free time counseling some former inmates thank you and to your question I've seen enough to know that it's possible. Maybe you should get out and offer up some of your services into trying to lower the reoffender rate you are so worried about and stop being one of those people who just talk about what we should do.

not going to list all the people who might be because if we knew for sure they would be out, what I will tell you to do is to go to google and type in "people wrongly convicted" and take a stroll down reality lane. These people might be out now but a whole lot of them spent some major time in prison before they could be released. I'm not trying to say this is every inmate but if you don't think it can happen you are more dillusional then most. Try asking one of these wrongly convicted people do they think it could happen because as a result of being wrongly convicted they got a close up view of the real world. It kills me that people live in this little la la land so out of touch with society that they don't believe that this can happen.

no educated come back so you give a nasty comment. Do you even know what this man is doing now? Do you know what kind of person he is now? Answer no but I can tell you one thing if he's on the computer debating with you he isn't a reoffender now is he? Further more he's not gaining anything by supporting these bills because he's free, what he does sound is educated enough to give y'all haters a good debate. He committed six felonies okay but he paid for it so if you can't give him an educated comeback save your little nasty comments because by telling us he committed those 6 felonies you really are just repeating what he already has told us. Good luck to you ninja I wish you much success at becoming a productive member of this society, don't let none of these folks hinder your desire to make it out here legit. I once read a good quote which I thinl you might like "Love all the people that hate you cause they are your biggest fans!"

you convict the right person.

reply to blame all liberals for Michigan's woes. Do alittle digging on the egg with legs Engler and you will find that he set us up for this failure by leaving THE biggest deficit in Michigan history. He did a whole lot of things to please conservatives and it left us in a huge whole to get sucked into, to bad it didn't suck him up with it!!

a name in with my comments instead of being unknown this comment pissed me off so bad that I set up an account and yes that is me who went off on your insensitive little jab at the inmates families.

with "are you serious"

i wish we had more people like you. i'm so sick of all these people posting their comments with no clue of what they're talking about.