Ruined My Life

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Hasta La Vista Prisoners

So, the great state of California has decided that prisoners are like trash, let's move it out of state!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061021/ap_on_re_us/California_prisons

Don't these people have rights of any kind? I believe they do. It would seem to me that one of them would be the ability to receive visits from family. I'll guess that many of them come from poor families and may have mothers, children, wives, brothers, etc. that would like to visit them. How on Earth is someone poor from Fresno going to be able to visit their son in prison out in Indiana?

This reminds me of Robert Moses. He did a lot of good and build many many highways through New York. I use the word through because he would split poor neighborhoods with roads like the BQE (Bronx Queens Expressway). Over the next 20 years, this action hurt these neighborhoods by breaking down social bonds, hurting local economies, etc. Won't the Governator's action have the same effect??

So, young men in prison who maybe screwed up and can still lead productive lives are being removed from another possible support mechanism. The real criminals here aren't the prisoners OR the Governator. It's the prison unions and private companies who are profiting from human trafficking. These corporations are making money off of laws like 3 Strikes or mandatory Minimums. They're the biggest backers of strict law and order punishment.

Maybe we'd be better off keeping them near home and trying to strengthen a natural support mechanism... the family, so that when they get out they have someone who cares about them.

If workers in Indiana want good paying jobs they should stop shopping at Wal-Mart (who has shipped all the light manufacturing overseas).

1 Comments:

  • Ask your web-savvy wife how to make some real links sometime. I bet she'd really help.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:03 PM  

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