Boy, if they start doing some heavy prosecutions of white collar crimes the privatization of prisons may become quite a lucrative business model with an amusing touch of irony!

John Poole (unregistered commentator) - I join you in your grief for Jerrel Saly, but
Justice and Revenge are not the same thing.  In no way am I dismissing Mr. Saly’s
lose, but justice must be tempered, as best as possible, without emotion.

To me, the perplexing aspect of many “conservative” commentators is that of
inmates having better quality lives than “the majority of people”.  Its as if the
problem were the quality of the inmates lives and not the quality of “the majority
of peoples” lives.

The absurdity continues. As if the fact that having been incarcerated doesn’t almost eliminate a formers prisoner’s chances at ever realizing a decent standard of living, no matter how rehabilitated he or she may become, now we will add the financial burden of having them pay for their own confinement. Priceless.

It’s just like Obama said, with imperial arrogance: “Americans know what it takes
to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”

Kristy Robinson, November 11 at 4:46 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I see no reason for taxpayers to keep paying money for inmates to live better than most of the community does. They get better medical care, better food and a lot of
things tat hard working individuals who obey the law can’t afford for themselves. So it’s wrong to make good, honest people pay these bills for them.

What a moralistic bunch of garbage. Your “facts” are not that at all and your ignorance of the reality of prison life screams out from this diatribe.

If you bothered to care about the solidity of your position you might spend a bit of time noting the inadequacies of prison life particularly in the statistics that show prisoners dying far earlier than the population in general. The health care at most prisons is abysmal and many organizations have been working for years to correct that. As to the food , well you don’t know shite.

You postulate that prison life is better than your own? Commit a crime, go to jail, live the “good life” and bother us no more. How’s your local Tea Party chapter doing?

...“county jail inmates deemed able will be forced to pay $142.42 per day during their stay in the clink.”  Well, obviously they aren’t able to “pay $142.42 per day during their stay” as they have no source of income, and probably little to no bank account.  So you add it up, day after day, and when they get out, nobody will hire them because they have a “record” so they can’t earn the money. Aternatives, anybody?  How about “dealing”?  Or bank robbery? 
  Held for just 10 days, they are presumably released with a debt of $1142.42. Most sentences are far longer than 10 days. Worse than college tuition!
  Meantime all the real thieves have PhDs in Grand Larceny and sit in suites on Wall Street, delicately twisting cocktail glasses in their disinfected hands.  What a country!

Apropos of nothing in particular:

” Prisons are built with stones of law;
and brothels with bricks of religion.”

William Blake

thethirdman, November 10 at 5:34 pm Link to this comment

I’m not being a smart ass, this is a legitimate questions for you ardee, but who do
you think should bear the responsibility for feeding and clothing those of our
society who can’t play by the established rules?  Honest question.

Honest question? Possibly. On topic, perhaps, perhaps not.

Background information first:
Our entire Penal System is a nightmare, do the research. The rates of recidivism alone should show this to be the plain truth. The increasing proliferation of private, for profit prisons might be another clue as well.

That the poor ,as noted prior by Blueokie, November 10 at 7:07 pm ( and of course I do not mind) bear the longest sentences, the largest number incarcerated, the burden for the absolute lack of training and counseling to reduce the aforementioned recidivism is blatantly obvious.

Further, we have a system in which the largest bloc of government employees are prison guards. They, along with the new private prisons, lobby increasingly for harsher laws and longer sentences, blatant self interest much?

Now, back to your question.

No I do not believe that those sentenced to prison should pay for their own incarceration. I would not believe in this even if our prison system was a model of efficiency and up to the task of retraining and releasing people to become productive members of society.

A nation is judged, not by how well the wealthiest live, but by how we treat the neediest. Your question is, I am sorry to note, a vapid and shallow one, as it fails to take into account anything I have noted above, or the many other inequities and inefficiencies inherent in our current system. Inequities that are the real reasons so many are forced into crime.

Lastly, it might seem obvious to some that this idea is one created to specifically discourage demonstrations by holding a financial club over those who would exercise their right of protest and free speech. In truth I wonder if this is a constitutionally valid idea.

Gmost I do agree with dismantling the PIC, three strike rules, and the War on
Drugs, all of which work hand in hand.  Do you think a budget shortfall could
trigger a new way of looking at this massive problem?

How sick can a society get without rigor mortis setting in?  “In another recent cost cutting, Texas has eliminated customized last meals for death row inmates.”  OCCUPY PRISONS!

thirdman- (if ardee doesn’t mind)  In a “society” that chooses to deal with its problems by criminalizing poverty and the disenfranchised?  Where “society” jails minorities at rates of 10 to 1 to whites?  Where people exercising their Constitutional Rights are jailed if “society” doesn’t deem their peaceful protest acceptable?  Where as the “society” disintegrates, it privatizes more “societal” functions, including the Prison Industrial Complex that bribes (you could probably think of it as lobbying and campaign contributions) lawmakers to keep their beds full?  Where the quality of “society’s” justice you receive is directly proportional to your access to resources?  Where “society” grants law enforcement (unless you are wealthy and/or well connected) the benefit of the doubt, and many find themselves in the position of guilty until proven innocent? Where “society” choses a two-tiered Justice System?  Where society regularly ignores its own rules to get its desired predetermined outcome?   

How about this for a start, even if you make bail, you still have to pay the $142.42 per day until your case is adjudicated.  That at least wouldn’t be as obvious as this.

As an aside, John Wayne was an insecure, womanizing, pill popping, draft dodger.  That was just the movies, the good guy doesn’t always win, and the innocent don’t always prevail, or are defended.

“The easiest way to make a man a slave is to give him a vote and tell him he’s
free” - Albert Camus

We all should bear the responsibility because we as a people have collectively (supposedly) decided what the rules are and we build jails to take those who don’t live by the rules for our collective protection.  We already levy large fines against criminals.  This is basically an admittance we can no longer afford the bloated prison industrial complex.  There are a lot better ideas of reducing cost, such as getting rid of three strikes laws, and ending the counterproductive drug war which causes far more harm to society than drugs ever could.

I’m not being a smart ass, this is a legitimate questions for you ardee, but who do
you think should bear the responsibility for feeding and clothing those of our
society who can’t play by the established rules?  Honest question.

OK, this certainly seems as if it comes from The Onion News. Of course it is Southern California…..