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Too many criminals
Having approximately two million persons in our nation's prisons, more than any other country, and millions more that have or will "serve time" in the future, America should realize that it can no longer exclude that many people for life from numerous working positions, simply because of what may be as little as one illegal act.
With the introduction of late 20th- and early 21st-century technology, many thousands of people are currently being convicted of unlawful activities that weren't even "on the books" as crimes a decade or two ago. Additionally, certain vehicle and traffic laws have now been elevated from high misdemeanors to low-level felonies, meaning that one conviction could eliminate someone from eligibility for all positions in civil service, politics, the legal profession and most jobs requiring any type of license, for life.
When our nation's federal, state and local legal systems were formed, approximately 225 years ago, they were mainly based on the British system already in place, but added a few new laws pertaining to particular regions. Through the last two centuries, though, lawmakers on all levels have sought to justify their existence by continuing to "pile on" new legal statutes, making it that much easier for the average citizen to "cross the line" into criminality.
Additionally, the U.S. and more specifically New York State, which has extremely stiff drug laws including mandatory jail sentences, have many thousands incarcerated simply because of their addiction to a banned product. Imagine if Prohibition had never been repealed in the 1930s. Would we now have millions of our citizens "doing time" because they were caught drinking a beer or a glass of wine? Sounds silly, yes, but alcohol was just as illegal to possess between 1920 and 1933 as marijuana or cocaine is today. In fact, even the latter were not considered illegal until about 1910, so this shows the mores of our society can and do change, more often than we think.
It's time for the U.S. Criminal Justice System to be revamped, substituting far more alternative forms of punishment for many of its victimless crimes; instituting more work-release programs; drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers; community service; cash reimbursement liens on perpetrators to repay aggrieved victims, etc.; and the elimination of those offenses from possible jail terms. Our criminal justice system is breaking down under the weight of a country with too many laws that seems hellbent on not stopping until every citizen has some kind of a criminal record.
Ronald Gendron
Smithtown
The writer is a retired State University of New York police officer.
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January 14, 2010
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| 1854: Emil von Behring, first recipient of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1901. |
| 1916: Harry James, American band leader and trumpet player. |
| 1933: Ruth Bader Ginsberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice. |
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