This is an interesting article. This guys is making some big changes which some will agree with and others will not.

But understand this, our court system is completely clogged with minor, non-violent offenses and are prisons are filling up with the same.

I witnessed this system first hand as a Public Defender and then as a Special Public Defender. It comes down to, how much do you want to pay in taxes.

https://theintercept.com/2018/...ner-philadelphia-da/

The Legislature ought to consider just repealing all those sections making these activities violations.

Nobody seems to be interested in compliance, observance. Like the classroom to college agreement in Florida, charging someone with crime just ruins their life. Enforcing these laws costs too much.

Good grief.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
The Legislature ought to consider just repealing all those sections making these activities violations.

Nobody seems to be interested in compliance, observance. Like the classroom to college agreement in Florida, charging someone with crime just ruins their life. Enforcing these laws costs too much.

Good grief.

I think you were being sarcastic, but I actually believe they should. Our legislators seem to feel the constant need to justify their jobs with more and more nonsense regulation. Over the years we have ended up with incredibly boated laws that continually get worse. Most of the stuff that goes through the courts now shouldn't period, and this guy at least sounds like he is making a good start in the right direction.

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
The Legislature ought to consider just repealing all those sections making these activities violations.

Nobody seems to be interested in compliance, observance. Like the classroom to college agreement in Florida, charging someone with crime just ruins their life. Enforcing these laws costs too much.

Good grief.

I think you were being sarcastic, but I actually believe they should. Our legislators seem to feel the constant need to justify their jobs with more and more nonsense regulation. Over the years we have ended up with incredibly boated laws that continually get worse. Most of the stuff that goes through the courts now shouldn't period, and this guy at least sounds like he is making a good start in the right direction.

You want sarcastic?

How about we repeal all the criminal laws except the 10 Commandments, and just have everybody run Hogg (sorry!) wild as they please.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:....Enforcing these laws costs too much.

Good grief.

During my time as a PD, Broward county was routinely filing felony charges on "residue" cocaine. Find a guy with a pipe, test it, if it turned blue, Felony cocaine possession. No cocaine, just the residue. Defended those by the 100's. Or, BSO cooked their own crack, then sold it to the public, then arrested the buyers (that is until they realized they were violating the law, which the State never prosecuted BSO)

My all time favorite, guy returns to county jail late from a work release program (operative word here is "returned), Felony escape, mandatory prison sentence.

I could go on, but I think you get the point, millions wasted on bull shit charges. But if you like paying taxes, then whatever....

quote:

Originally posted by Southflorida-law:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:....Enforcing these laws costs too much.

Good grief.

During my time as a PD, Broward county was routinely filing felony charges on "residue" cocaine. Find a guy with a pipe, test it, if it turned blue, Felony cocaine possession. No cocaine, just the residue. Defended those by the 100's. Or, BSO cooked their own crack, then sold it to the public, then arrested the buyers (that is until they realized they were violating the law, which the State never prosecuted BSO)

My all time favorite, guy returns to county jail late from a work release program (operative word here is "returned), Felony escape, mandatory prison sentence.

I could go on, but I think you get the point, millions wasted on bull shit charges. But if you like paying taxes, then whatever....

How can so many people be so miserable and/or stupid that they are willing, insist upon it, to mess up their lives with substance abuse?

Even if they are not caught by law enforcement, it seldom ends well, mostly disastrously, very often early.

It just doesn't seem like it would be so compelling, to risk all that with very poor odds.

And yet, there are many who recoil in horror, and oppose vitriolically, not at drug usage, but at attempts to discourage it.

that some are so stupid, so miserable, in real life is no surprise. The surprise is how many apparently are.

In general, depending on what the individual's history is, is better off with those people confined?

There are 4 categories of homeless:
Those made homeless by economic misadventure
The untreatable mentally ill
The insane, who respond to medication
The voluntarily homeless, usually who prefer a life built around an addiction.

Often, the last two are habitual, minor, offenders, and society is better off with them removed from the public

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:...There are 4 categories of homeless:
Those made homeless by economic misadventure
The untreatable mentally ill
The insane, who respond to medication
The voluntarily homeless, usually who prefer a life built around an addiction...

I think those four categories make a lot of sense. And maybe the better we understand such, the better solutions we will have.

I am of the opinion that EMS should no longer respond to frequent flyers

it puts too many people at risk, and wastes resources on someone that is trying to commit suicide anyway

so why not just let them?

EMS responding to a OD call gets involved win an accident - a mom and a minivan with kids

4 killed

was it worth it?

if we let these people kill themselves off, which they are trying to do no matter how you phrase it, eventually the users will die off, and there will no longer be a demand and the supply will dry up

what does it cost?

This attitude isn't new. It describes NYC from the 70's to the early 90's. This was also when NYC topped out at just north of 2200/year. People finally got pissed enough to do something about it. What they did was elect Rudy Giuilani as mayor. What he did was grossly change the attitude of the entire law enforcement hierarchy. Go along to get along was gone. The went hard ass. Spit on the sidewalk - busted. Take up two seats on the subway - busted. Don't even think about any type of stream hustles (drug dealing, protitution , etc.) It was called "broken windows", under the theory that if the skels saw that things were going to shit, they would think that they could get away with whatever they wanted. So they cops went to extreme lengths to demonstrate that no level of crime was going to be tolerated.

After 8 years of this, muders were down to about 600/year. Bloomberg, to his credit, didn't screw with this plan, and just let it continue. By the time he left, murders were down to the mid-300s.

Now we have the idiot Deblasio. Like this idiot DA from Philly, he''s determined to undo what's worked very well for the 20 years before he showed up. So far he really hasn't been able to. The Murders rate is still creeping down. I think there have been too may structural demographic, economic, an LE bureaucratic changes for him to effectively screw with them yet. But he's trying.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
I am of the opinion that EMS should no longer respond to frequent flyers...

Curious description. My daughter is an EMT who works dispatch for airborne ambulance.

Utah passed criminal justice reform about two years ago. https://justice.utah.gov/JRI/
If you are interested in criminal justice reform, Utah would be a very good jurisdiction to study.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
I am of the opinion that EMS should no longer respond to frequent flyers...

Curious description. My daughter is an EMT who works dispatch for airborne ambulance.

Then call her up and ask her what frequent flyers mean to her. To us ground based EMS guys (or EX in my case),a "frequent flyer" is a polite way of saying 911 ABUSER. For example we had a patient that would call 911 around once a week for foot pain. Her trips to the hospital were paid for by the local tax payer. Another frequent flier was a drug seeker who would fake seizures yet always returned to perfect consciousness when you were trying to get his med list. At the hospital he would verbally and occasionally physically abuse the nurses. His trips to the hospital were also paid for by the tax payer.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
Utah passed criminal justice reform about two years ago. https://justice.utah.gov/JRI/
If you are interested in criminal justice reform, Utah would be a very good jurisdiction to study.

It's a federal mandate, Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI). It's interesting you bring up Utah though, as JRI was a direct cause of at least two officers being killed in that state by violent offenders who never should've been on the streets, but were released early. And crime has increased steadily in every state since JRI was mandated in 2015.

quote:

Originally posted by Southflorida-law:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:....Enforcing these laws costs too much.

Good grief.

During my time as a PD, Broward county was routinely filing felony charges on "residue" cocaine. Find a guy with a pipe, test it, if it turned blue, Felony cocaine possession. No cocaine, just the residue. Defended those by the 100's. Or, BSO cooked their own crack, then sold it to the public, then arrested the buyers (that is until they realized they were violating the law, which the State never prosecuted BSO)

My all time favorite, guy returns to county jail late from a work release program (operative word here is "returned), Felony escape, mandatory prison sentence.

I could go on, but I think you get the point, millions wasted on bull shit charges. But if you like paying taxes, then whatever....

I invite you to buy a home in Philadelphia and actually live there as your only resort/option. Then, circle back and let me know how you feel about having to live in a place where there is no accountability for bad behavior.

quote:

Originally posted by DennisM:

quote:

Originally posted by Southflorida-law:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:....Enforcing these laws costs too much.

Good grief.

During my time as a PD, Broward county was routinely filing felony charges on "residue" cocaine. Find a guy with a pipe, test it, if it turned blue, Felony cocaine possession. No cocaine, just the residue. Defended those by the 100's. Or, BSO cooked their own crack, then sold it to the public, then arrested the buyers (that is until they realized they were violating the law, which the State never prosecuted BSO)

My all time favorite, guy returns to county jail late from a work release program (operative word here is "returned), Felony escape, mandatory prison sentence.

I could go on, but I think you get the point, millions wasted on bull shit charges. But if you like paying taxes, then whatever....

I invite you to buy a home in Philadelphia and actually live there as your only resort/option. Then, circle back and let me know how you feel about having to live in a place where there is no accountability for bad behavior.

Yeah, I would have to agree.

The point I'll make is I DO NOT approve of any "REFORM" that doesn't include actually putting people in jail when they commit the crimes left standing. Right now, I love to hear liberals talk about people "paying their debt to society" and deserving this or that. How people with "no criminal history" (actually translates into its March and he hasn't had a felony so far this year, but is currently out on bond for a felony in December '17) serve time on "bullshit charges" (my personal favorite is the guy that got 30 years for "stealing a CD", when actually he violated his parole a seventh time by stealing a CD and they finally locked his ass up for the original robbery charge that he was probated on). Everything is pennies on the dollar sentences. No one actually does time anymore that is inline with the offense.

And because of that, I can't support ANY type of reform that doesn't lock up the bad people for extended periods of time, instead of assist in committing multiple robberies and a double murder, get 23 years.

The attorneys here insist that this type of bullshit is necessary to keep the courts unclogged. Sorry folks, that is what the courts are for, it's kinda their job. If this is the case, time to hire more judges or something. Pennies on the dollar sentences in the name of "keeping the courts unclogged" and probation/parole for everyone has to stop, or we only think that we have problems right now.

my reference to frequent flyers is the druggie that gets high every week and expects someone to come along and rescue his ass so he can do it again next week

ask most cops and they can give you names and addresses by memory because they've been there so many times

quote:

Originally posted by Southflorida-law:
This is an interesting article. This guys is making some big changes which some will agree with and others will not.

But understand this, our court system is completely clogged with minor, non-violent offenses and are prisons are filling up with the same.

I witnessed this system first hand as a Public Defender and then as a Special Public Defender. It comes down to, how much do you want to pay in taxes.

https://theintercept.com/2018/...ner-philadelphia-da/

How about reducing the cost of prison operations? They tried turning it over to profit making organizations, AIR, which only made it more expensive and cumbersome.

So, how to reduce incarceration costs?

How about executing those convicted and sentenced to death in something less than 9 or 10+ years?

And yeah, I have heard all the excuses about how many innocent people have been locked up. May have held water a couple decades ago, but not IMO applicable today.

Tried, convicted, sentenced, one appeal on real issues, and if appeal is denied, execution within 15 days. (or less).

Any defense attorney who files a challenge based on misspelled words, or other such BS should be immediately disbarred!

And all that feel-good BS should be discontinued immediately!

Prison is supposed to be a punishment. Put the inmates to work, using sledge hammers to make big rocks into little rocks for example.

quote:

The attorneys here insist that this type of bullshit is necessary to keep the courts unclogged.

Well, it seems to me that keeping the bad guys locked up would also keep the courts from getting over crowded, etc, with repeat offenders.

Restore the teeth to the legal system, use those "teeth" and actually punish illegal behavior.

How many times do we read/hear about Joe Schmoe who is in court for the umpteenth time? They used to call prison "hard time".