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ghostbusted wrote:

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This is probably off topic but worthy of comment. I think a case can be made that from a societal viewpoint there is more danger from the guilty going free than from the innocent being incarcerated. The incarceration of an innocent, while regrettable, affects only the innocent person and his family and associates. Given the tendency toward recidivism, a guilty person freed on a technicality is highly likely to victimize additional people. In addition, I think that most criminal defendants are not innocent 'choirboys'. If they are wrongly convicted in this case, it probably just balances out some other crimes that they were never caught for. I don't think that there should not be any defense or trial but I do think that this issue should be acknowledged. Perhaps a modification to the exclusionary rule so that 'tainted' evidence can still be used to ensure justice and the tainters dealt with separately is in order. What are your thoughts on this, Eliza?

Also, it is always risky to make comparisons between nations unless you attempt to account for cultural differences. For example, the majority of Americans are descended from people who demonstrated the initiative and determination to leave their homelands and come here. In contrast, the other countries are populated by the descendants of those who accepted their lives in those countries and stayed. Does this emphasis on individualism and not accepting the status quo manifest itself in an increase in criminal behavior?

I really really disagree, just because corrections is becoming such a huge strain on state budgets. Look at California, where the corrections budget has been inching toward the education budget for a long time (i.e. big corrections increases every year, small education increases every year.) Eventually the corrections budget in California will surpass education. Is that right? I would definitely think that less incarceration is THE way to go. Especially because there are also abuses within the system where corrections officers, knowing somebody is up for parole or getting out soon, will go out of their way to make the prisoner act up so he will stay incarcerated.

I would definitely rather have less crime than more crime, and there is undoubtedly less crime today than twenty years ago, but I cannot help but to think that the current corrections overcorrects for a past system that was perhaps too lenient. Now we are way way too strict and we are literally, as tax-payers, paying the price for it.