This doesn't have to be a bad thing. What if we release the non-violent ones, who really shouldn't be there in the first place, and incarcerate only the violent ones?
I run into this argument when debating gun control. I advocate abolishing ALL laws prohibiting carrying any small arm around. You can walk into a gun store or hardware store anywhere, and beyond demonstrating you're an adult, can buy any firearm, put it in your pocket and, without anybody's say-so, walk down the street with it.
"But wait," whine the hopolophobes, "surely you don't want dangerous people on the streets with guns?"
Nope! Dangerous felons--the armed robbers, muggers, rapists, murderers, politicians, child molesters--BELONG IN THE JOINT at LEAST until they're so old and decrepit that they no longer have the impetus to hurt others, or at least aren't capable of it. As WGN radio host Mike McConnell says, some people just don't mature until they're 40 or 50, and can't be trusted to walk the streets without hurting others until then. So when they demonstrate that they can't be trusted among us, you lock them up until they demonstrate otherwise. If that's never, then you hold them until they are no longer capable of robbing liquor stores and raping and such.
Then the rest of society can have our gun rights back, because the dangerous people will be LOCKED THE •••• UP! And we can only do that if we find punishments for non-violent offenders other than incarceration.
So let all the non-violent offenders out to make room for those who do true violence to society: rapists, child molesters, armed robbers, murderers, and senators.
