That's a GREAT point about parole making it cheap to make something criminal. I never thought of it that way before! That being said, in a Libertarian society, I'd not mind parole, so long as the person voluntarily signed away the rights that were being disposed of in favor of physical freedom. In a Libertarian society though, you'd see a DAMNED lot fewer things that are illegal. Subbie I'm curious what types of felonies you've committed. If they're nothing more than drug use and the like, I don't care. : At 2:39 PM -0700 7/4/01, Sandy Sandfort wrote: : >Inchoate wrote: : > : >> 'routine search'? Remind me never : >> to go to Ohio. : > : >It's every state of the Union. Parolees are still prisoners. Just as you : >can search a prisoner's cell, a parole officer can search a parolee's house. : : The entire parole process is itself an open sore on our justice system. It's turned into a control system, a "force magnfication" scheme. Instead of actually having to _jail_ all of the people, they release them early, take away their key Bill of Rights protections (2nd, 4th, etc., including the vote) and have them as virtual slaves of the system. : : From an economic/libertarian point of view, what this has done is to alter the costs of making things criminal. Standard economic theory: making more people criminals doesn't cost much, and makes them more malleable. As so many people have said so pithily, "At the rate they're going, we'll _all_ be felons." And felons don't need no steenking constitutional rights. : : Were Orwell writing today, he'd probably replace his "proles" with "parolees." And the cameras in each room would merely be part of the parole process. : : One of the biggest concerns Keith Henson had in his probable 6-month sentence in his case (which is another issue) is that he was likely to receive a 5-year probation term, during which his house could (and likely would) be entered at any time, day or night, and during which period his private files and records would be scrutinized for any thoughtcrimes which could be used to send him back for a longer period. (Which happened with both Bell and Parker.) : : As a felon myself, and one who committed a dozen or so felonies each carrying 3-year terms just last week, I realize how the entire probation/parole process is what Big Brother really likes the most about our so-called justice system. : : --Tim May : : : -- : Timothy C. May tcmay@got.net Corralitos, California : Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon : Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go : Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns :