When there is so much that needs fixing, I can't understand the compulsory mindset of needing to fix that which is not broken ~ 
~ Sooz
December 11, 2011 11:15 AM
A prison system that already worksBy Steve Benen
If facts had any bearing at all on national-security policy debates, the efficacy of the U.S. justice system in locking up convicted terrorists would shut down Republican arguments quickly.
Quote:
In recent weeks, Congress has reignited an old debate, with some arguing that only military justice is appropriate for terrorist suspects. But military tribunals have proved excruciatingly slow and imprisonment at Guantanamo hugely costly — $800,000 per inmate a year, compared with $25,000 in federal prison.
The criminal justice system, meanwhile, has absorbed the surge of terrorism cases since 2001 without calamity, and without the international criticism that Guantanamo has attracted for holding prisoners without trial.
Under the system that both parties used to accept without question, hundreds of convicted terrorists, including many connected to international terrorism, have been tried, convicted, and sentenced through our justice system. These convicted terrorists receive lengthy sentences, are closely watched, have almost no contact without the outside world, and in cases in which they are released, “it appears extraordinarily rare for the federal prison inmates with past terrorist ties to plot violence after their release.â€
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