Posted on 08/14/2004 10:56:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (SMW) - As recently as a year ago, California correctional officers set up a picket line to shut down a college program for inmates at Ironwood State Prison. Why should convicts get a free crack at college, the union argued, when the officers' kids have to pay for it?
So when the California Correctional Peace Officers Association this year won a say at the bargaining table in evaluating whether a college program at San Quentin should be expanded, inmates rights activists and the union's legislative critics blew a fuse.
They suggested that any role the CCPOA plays in whether such programs live or die is suspect because anything that keeps inmates from coming back to prison is against the union's interest.
Enter Jody Lewen, director of the college program that CCPOA detractors asserted the union wants to kill. In her view, the CCPOA, in its contract talks with the state, has become one of her most important allies in trying to expand the program to other prisons.
(Excerpt) Read more at bakersfield.com ...
*Snort*
Like they're going out of business?
wouldn't it be cheaper just to dump the inmate program?
the cost involved is minimal and they use volunteers and the benefits to society are worth it , imo.
From what I read 25% of the Cali inmates are from other countries (ie mostly Mexico). Mexicans work cheaper. I say Cali should outsource to Mexico.
I agree, we have that invasion factor weighing very heavily on the system as well.
Prison should be for punishment. There should be nothing desirable about serving prison time. The conditions of prison should be so bleak that a convict would wet himself at the thought of committing another crime.
I understand your point but prisons were also intended to rehabilitate many of those incarcerated therein, thus lessening the likelihood of detrimental effects to society upon their release.
As I understand, the college education is free to them because it is subsidized by the federal government. I don't think this is right. In any event, I don't believe that inmates should have a free crack at education while law-abiding citizens have to pay.
In the end, WE pay either way for almost everything that goes on today in America on either side of the bars. ;-)
Which is why they should be making license plates, breaking rocks and such--a small, sweaty token effort towards paying for their room and board.
having them pay for their own education in some way , sounds fair to me...
I agree with you. The only problem is the sheer number of laws a regulations that can get you in jail.
Laws should be clear and few.
Punishments should be short and harsh.
I agree with that.
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