Get this… apparently there is legislation before Congress to create a national Department of Peace, which will be tasked with mediating local issues of violence, rehabilitating prisoners, eliminating gangs, and so on.
In other words, it’s another scheme designed to separate hard-working taxpayers from their money, in order to support highly speculative, extremely costly pet projects of people who are having visions… er, sorry, people with vision.
Jumpin’ Jehosaphat, have these people never heard of George Orwell?
Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1984.
You want to deal with the rising prison population? There’s an easy way. No, really. And in my mind, it’s a far more humane solution than locking people up:
Deportation.
As bartenders are wont to quip at closing time, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
Start with the three-strikes laws (though any mandatory restrictions that handcuff our judges constitute a blatant violation of due process, but that’s another post).
There have been valid complaints drawn that someone with two strikes, who has been making an earnest effort to walk the straight-and-narrow, gets hauled in on some piddling traffic offense or minor parole violation and has to be sentenced to some unGodly multi-decade prison sentence. Insane.
Within the judge’s discretion, any offense lesser than strike one and/or two should not count towards the third strike– especially if it’s a reformed felon who bounces a check or some such.
But if someone does pull that third strike, there’s no reason the taxpayers should support them for the next few decades.
Revoke their citizenship. (The felon, not the taxpayers.)
Hand them a check for, say, $50,000. That’s about the cost of keeping them in prison for a year, and it’s more than enough to make a new start in lots of other countries.
Hand them a voucher for, say, another $50,000. That goes to whatever country they decide to relocate to, to soften the blow of accepting a known troublemaker.
Escort them onto the plane. Problem solved, at twenty percent of the cost.
If there was ever any possibility that the felon could rehabilitate, they have one final chance.
After the duration of whatever their prison sentence was, they can apply for citizenship like any other immigrant.
Our American citizenship is a precious gift, and for too long we’ve been taking it for granted. Those who demonstrate repeatedly that they are unable or unwilling to work within our society’s laws should not be allowed to remain. But the taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize their keep for years on end, either.
This seems a far more workable, far more concrete solution, than just creating another big Federal agency.