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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 :