Thursday, September 6
Criminal Justice
I would begin the process of re-defining the role of prisons in today's culture. I would present public defenders' offices with budgets and resources equal to those of their prosecuting opponents, so that the long whispered of "fair trial" might actually exist. And then make prisons something besides the storage shed of societal leftovers that they are now. Prison theme songs should be more along the lines of "Moving on Up (upon release and using these new skills i have learned)" rather than the current song choice "Island of misfit toys".
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3 comments:
Several years ago I helped build a detention center and got to know the head jailer quite well. This is the story, huge amounts of money are made from incarcerating human beings. The most goes to lawyers and judges, and then it filters down. Locking up prisoners from other states who are overloaded runs close to 40,000+ per year. Each pod has five phones that work for collect calls only. The jailer told me the county got $1 and ma bell got one too when the party excepted the collect call. This would pay the county over 1 million alone on collect calls. This center had a full hospital in the basement because 8% would have full blown cases of HIV. About 12% would be homosexuals in for the capivated entertainment. As cold weather approached, you would have street people shop lift just to get 3 square meals and warm place for the winter (90 days). We put in the rubber rooms for the mentally ill. Young and old thrown together to become hardened criminals. We don't educate-we punish. Each pod handled 68 inmates besides the phones, it had 2 TV's which got 13 cable channels, constantly monitored by cameras. Each pod is built around an exercize pod-where they get to play basketball one hour a day. A joint goes for $10, a cigeratette is $15. They have their own markets, so who is in charge.
I wouldn't spend the money on anything. We are going into debt at the rate of a billion dollars a day. I would balance the budget. If we don't do that in the next administration, we will reach the point where we can't pay the interest on the debt. At that point, the U.S. will implode like the former Soviet Union.
Then all spending on Education, Healthcare, Housing, Foreign Aid, etc... will all stop.
Speaking of criminal justice - I would spend part of the money on prosecuting the criminal gang who brought us this war, this financial depression.
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