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So it looks like WNBA’s Brittney Griner’s 9-Year Prison Sentence Upheld In Russian Appeal Court.
One thing I find interesting about the whole ordeal is the similarities between her case and the Jan6 detainees, in both an hostile government dishes disproportionate punishment to a member of an opposing tribe.
While I feel for Ms. Griner I can't help, but chuckle at the parallels and remind myself that in the real world there aren't good guys, just your guys and theirs.
Jan. 6 detainees say a D.C. jail is so awful that they'd like a transfer to Guantanamo
Glossing over the performative nature of this gesture, you'd think the travails of the Jan. 6 rioters would engender a degree of sympathy for criminal justice reformers. Instead, the reaction seems to be outrage that Upstanding Citizens like themselves should be subject to the same conditions as common criminals.
If they were subject to the same conditions as common criminals, they'd have been released without bail and then had the charges quietly dropped.
If this is how common criminals are treated, how does the US end up with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world?
I assuming you're asking in good faith. If not, please pardon the overlong answer.
The United States is nearly unique among countries of the world in that it has both a high rate of violent crime and also the state capacity to investigate and prosecute crime. In the 1980s and 1990s, a "tough on crime" stance prevailed as the political consensus, epitomized by tough mandatory sentencing and "three strikes" laws. During this period, the prison population swelled and violent crime rates plummeted.
Things have changed since then. A new consensus formed, especially in blue states, that prior sentencing laws were too strict. Many localities elected district attorneys and judges who took an extremely lenient stance on crime. This was also exacerbated by the Covid epidemic when jailing criminals was seen as unsafe to their health. The per capita prison population peaked in 2008, and the murder rate reached a low in 2014.
Today, in many cities such as San Francisco and Seattle, criminals are routinely released on no bail even when they have several prior convictions on their record. In some cases, they immediately commit serious crimes upon release. While the most serious offenses are still prosecuted, most arrests never lead to charges or prosecution.
I don't deny that incarceration rates have significantly dropped in recent years (esp pandemic-related), but that doesn't support claiming that common criminals get "released without bail and then have charges quietly dropped". If that's how "common criminals" are being treated, is the implication that the 2 million or so people currently behind bars are by definition uncommon?
No, they are common criminals who were jailed under older, less lenient policies, because the incarceration rate lags policy changes that affect the flow of incarceration. And despite that lag the rate has decreased several times faster than it increased even during the most murderous years of American history.
Come on man. The whole "it's not happening" thing gets really old. I get it if you support prison abolition or whatever, but why not just be forthright about it?
Right, you tried to hand-wave away the 400,000 or so people in pretrial detention by claiming they are there for murder. It would be helpful if you were more precise with your claims, and maybe if you brought forth actual evidence.
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