Supreme Court's scary ruling on state's prisons

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 5/24/11 | Debra J. Saunders

[SmithL]

The U.S. Supreme Court effectively ordered California on Monday to release 33,000 inmates over two years from an in-state prison population that numbers about 143,000.

Kent Scheidegger of the tough-on-crime Criminal Justice Legal Foundation blogged that Californians shouldn't "bother investing much in a car. It will be open season on cars, given that car thieves (nonviolent offenders) will never go to prison no matter how many times they are caught."

The 5-4 Plata decision upheld a federal three-judge panel that in 2009 found that overcrowding in California prisons is "criminogenic" - likely to produce criminals - and ordered state prisons to run at 137.5 percent of design capacity. The state's prisons are designed to hold 80,000 inmates. (Be it noted, 100 percent capacity means one inmate per cell.)

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited ugly stories of inmates waiting months for needed medical and mental-health treatment - a violation of Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. And: "As many as 54 prisoners may share a single toilet." Kennedy argued, "Prisoners retain the essence of human dignity inherent in all persons."

[Verginius Rufus]

Solve the medical issue by flying prisoners who need medical care to Cuba. They have excellent medical care there—just ask Michael Moore.

[mrmax]

Solution:
Prisoner Survivor Island.
Calif rent uninhabited desert Island, place 80,000 prison inmates on that island, with only enough food and water for 40,000. Problem solved.

[End Times Sentinel]

End the prohibition and the insane profits go away.

I want to make sure I've got this right:
you're saying we should legalize crack cocaine? Heroin? PCP?

Do you really think fewer people would use these drugs, or more? Would it be better for there to be more crack addicts, junkies, and people roaming the streets on PCP?

Are you suggesting that alcohol is as addictive to most people as heroin or crack?

[SeeSharp]

I want to make sure I've got this right: you're saying we should legalize crack cocaine? Heroin? PCP?

Yes.

Do you really think fewer people would use these drugs, or more?

I don't care. I think the cost of the war on drugs in terms of our liberties is too high. And I think the worst consequences associated with drug abuse stem mainly from the high cost of the drugs. Few people rob and steal to buy booze.

Are you suggesting that alcohol is as addictive to most people as heroin or crack?

I did not suggest it but I will. Alcohol affects the same centers of the brain and is every bit as addictive as heroin (which BTW the Bayer company used to sell in tablet form as a children's analgesic). Crack is a different story, but crack would never have existed if not for the prohibition on cocaine.

[Pecos]

Robert Heinlein wrote a story called “Coventry”, in which ne’er-do-wells were put in a prison that only had an impenetrable outer wall - nothing else. The concept was that if a person could not live nicely with the rest of society, they would be banned from society and forced to live among others of their kind. Three options come to mind for the US: (1) The Federal government buys Catalina Island, and uses the Coast Guard to prevent any boat or aircraft from getting near. (2) We buy/lease an island off the coast of British Columbia; same patrol force. (3) Stake out a section of land just south of Lordsburg, NM, and equip it with tents, water tanks, and air-dropped food; U.S. Marshall Service and rotational national guard anti-aircraft battalions to provide security.

In all three options, there would be a semi-annual government visit to deposit more prisoners and remove the survivors who had served their time.

[CodeToad]

Do you realize teenagers are using far more dangerous substances than crack or PCP that they buy at the grocery store?

I don’t think you are seeing the bigger picture here.

Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol and it isn’t working for any other substance. Allowing the federal government to dictate substance possession is not even in the constitution.

For all the laws, prisons, cops, and stomping of rights, we still have 10% of the population smoking pot on a regular basis and teenage smoking hasn’t really changed.