Phil Bryant rolls out anti-crime proposals

This was the title of a CL article today and while I am a Jamie Franks supporter I read it hoping that Bryant had some good ideas if he is the winner. Below are the ideas and how crazy I think some of them are and how I think some of them are valid.

Automatic life-sentences for second offense convictions of crack and crystal meth manufacturers and dealers. Why are we targeting these 2 drugs over other substances like cocaine or heroin? The thought process leaps to the fact these are the drug of choice for the poor and minorities more so than other drugs and those people aren't usually Republicans anyway. I'm not saying be soft of drugs (here at least) but seems to be demographic targeted. I also think the automatic life sentence thing is crazy (here is where you think I'm soft of crime). Drug offenders often are repeat offenders but a life sentence, get real, do you want to see a way to bust the budget have thousands of offenders with life sentences in 2050 who haven't had a drug in 40 years. Way to be a forward thinker Phil.

Doubling the penalties for those who commit crimes against children and the elderly. Now here is a group I want to target for stiffer penalties, doubling the penalties sounds good but I'd like to actually see what the penalties are now.

Adjudicating juvenile sex offenders as adults. I think this is an absolutely stupid rule. Juvenile sex offenders are a vast majority of the time no different than any other juvenile offender. They make stupid mistakes with their juvenile minds and they shouldn't be penalized more harshly because of the offense is called a sex offense. Also many of these cases are upset daddies wanting that damned kid put in jail for doing something to his daughter that she may or may not have wanted. I'm just saying that we don't need to take the discretion away from the judge, that is precisely why we have judges to make the call here to try as a juvenile or as an adult. The judge can move him up if he wants/deserves to.

A ban on the sale of drug paraphernalia in stores. Is this not already a law? If not a good idea. I need to look up what is called paraphernalia to learn more about this.

Integrating local law enforcement's fingerprint and identification systems. Another good idea except that I wish the local agencies would/could do this without prompting/requirement from the state level. I need to brush up on separation of powers in the Mississippi constitution.

Expanding the sex offender registry to include criminals already convicted of any crime against children or the elderly. What? Then it wouldn't be the sex-offender registry, it would be the sex-offender and some others registry at that point. Now if he wants a registry to keep up with these people then propose that. I am not saying a registry like this for new offenders would be constitutional, I'm not sold that the sex-offender registry is constitutional but don't mix the two, that is just dumb. What is even worse is that there is no way it is constitutional to impose this criminal penalty on those "already convicted" of these crimes. They have been sentenced, it's done, you can't up the sentence after the fact because a new law gets passed, it's called ex post facto Phil, c'mon.

Fully-funding the state crime lab. I hope this happens no matter who wins, no excuse for not having this.