Comments

1
Our national treatment of prisoners, both American and foreign, is reprehensible.
3
SLOG are you seriously expecting me to give a fuck about the treatment of California inmates? Fuck these guys - outside of the idiots doing jail time for dime bags of weed we should care less on how Skinheads/Mexican Cartels/Crips n Bloods are treated. Because if most of these guys were out on the streets on Cap Hill they would call you a faggot, kick your ass and take your shit -
4
Lose weight now? Ask me how!
5
@3

Sigh...

Prior to 1980 California had a 6-9% recidivism rate for all released inmates, in the early 80's during one of California's right wing phases laws were passed that among other things decreed that the primary purpose of the CDC was punishment and ended almost all of the inmate programs.

Since then the recidivism rate has steadily climbed to over 60% (though it has dropped somewhat in the last few years).

Also due to mandatory minimums and a draconian two strikes and your out law California prisons are so over crowded that the federal courts have ordered the prison populations reduced, very shortly the state will have no choice but to release thousands of inmates on to the streets.

P.S. if you call yourself a Xian you may want to re-read Hebrews 13:3
6
Funny, liberals keep telling us crime is down and that anyone complaining about crime is a hysteric. Yet they don't see a connection to locking up actual criminals.
7
If I was in prison for life I for one would want to exercise my right to die. I wish we would clearly establish a way out for people in untenable situations.
8
Fuck these guys - outside of the idiots doing jail time for dime bags of weed we should care less on how Skinheads/Mexican Cartels/Crips n Bloods are treated.

This is a big country, with many overlapping jurisdictions, so there will always be exceptions and horrendous miscarriages of justice. This is why I think, for example, that the standard for applying the death penalty ought to be higher than it is.

That said, I seriously doubt that anyone goes to prison in California for "dime bags of weed," unless a) it's a whole lot of dime bags, or b) it's the umpteenth criminal conviction. The notion spread by the drug lobby that thousands of people are sitting in prison for personal, recreational pot use is just as much a myth as the "Reefer Madness" propaganda of the 1930s.

Prior to 1980 California had a 6-9% recidivism rate for all released inmates, in the early 80's during one of California's right wing phases laws were passed that among other things decreed that the primary purpose of the CDC was punishment and ended almost all of the inmate programs.

Not to mention that the California prison guard's union soaked up money that once went to those programs. It's tragic, that's for sure.

Also due to mandatory minimums and a draconian two strikes and your out law

I believe it's "three strikes," not "two strikes," and with some exceptions I support it. The solution to "three strikes" is to avoid committing three felonies. Now, we can argue, quite legitimately in my opinion, that not all felonies are equal, and that some of them shouldn't be included in the "three strikes" rule. With that exception, I think it's a good law. The result has been a drastically reduced crime rate, which the opponents of the law never seem to mention.
9
@8

No, in California it's two strikes, (granted the law is called a three strikes law, but in actual practice it's two) and in many cases if a person with a prior felony commits what would otherwise be a misdemeanor, it becomes a felony.

About one in eight people in the CDC are there for simple possession of Marijuana.

Money for inmate rehabilitation was stopped by the California State legislature specifically, the Co unions had nothing to do with it.

Three strikes laws have been studied extensively, and no study has found that they reduce crime in any way, however programs like HOPE probation in Hawaii work very well, and that's with people with prior felonies.
10
@7

Prisoners are not allowed to commit suicide, and an attempt is treated as an infraction, and will get a prisoner disciplined, aside and apart from being placed on suicide watch.
11
About one in eight people in the CDC are there for simple possession of Marijuana.

Prove it. Give me a link, and not to some drug lobby propaganda site.
12
While this link is to an article found at NORMAL (so you will whine that its propaganda) it quotes from a study from the U.S. Department of Justice, so any intelligent person will understand that it is accurate.

http://norml.org/news/2006/10/12/nearly-…
13
test
14
@12, "marijuana offenses" span a wide range. You contended that "one in eight people in the CDC are there for simple possession of Marijuana." There's a difference between a dime bag and 20 pounds, and we don't have any data about other offenses that these people committed. And yes, NORML is a propaganda site.
15
Why even have prison? Why not kill everyone instantly?
16
@15, want to volunteer to be first, then?

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.