State of the state: talking about overcrowded prisons, she said that non violent offenders should not be imprisoned. The only time I've ever heard the term "Non violent offenders" is when your referring to drug users.

THIS IS GOOD. I hope im right in this ridicolous jump to conclusion.

I don't think people go to jail for more than 30 days for pot.

^actual the penalty is a year for possession, and 90 days for "use". Besides, it costs about 62 dollars a day to lock someone up. So locking someone up for thirty days costs taxpayers 1,860 dollars. Each year about 15,000 people in Michigan get arrested for marijuana possession. Thats a total of $27,900,000. And thats if every one arrested is getting lucky and serving just 1/12th of there sentence. How much is it if they get a year? $334,800,000.

actually she just made pot a violent offense ^_^


Was this before or after they sold the Michigan Lottery to private interests?

We have lots of people in the prison population serving LONG sentences owing to stuff like the 650-lifer laws. Some of the more-egregious sentencing rules have been fixed over the past few years as part of by bi-partisan efforts to cut costs, but there's still a lot to be done. The quandary has been -- we spend more than the other states in our area, but our crime isn't significantly less than theirs as a consequence. How do you cut without screwing up crime? Keep in mind that prisons effectively indoctrinate marginal scumbags into the fine art of being major-league scumbags, so it's not as easy as "let go the druggies sentenced for too long".

I just watched the rest of her speech (I cut out after the first half hour for the game :) ). You can too, at:

http://red-cedar.wkar.msu.edu:8080/ramgen/Archive/misc/sos2007_tv.rm

Executive summary: Lots of rah-rah ideas, but we have to balance a budget to make them happen. A budget will be proposed soon that does that. Fuck you if you don't agree with the budget, but don't have the balls to suggest specifics on what you'd want to cut.

The Republican reply is here too. Rather than getting some real Republican leader to respond, they get some dude from the west side of the state to do so. AFAICT, his dick was surgically removed.

iirc, Here in CA, under an ounce is a misdemeanor. Over that and they try to add on 'intent' issues.

Under an ounce was a misdemeanor in Ann Arbor back in the 70s, I think. But that was before Ronnie took office and Nancy came up with 'just say no' stuff.

Winners don't use drugs.
Drugs use winners.