Calif. Prison System and Harvard

[One Sweet World]

Interesting...
http://www.realitybbq.com/

"What does the California prison system have in common with Harvard University? It costs precisely as much to house, feed and guard one prisoner for one year in a California state prison as tuition, meals and housing cost for a student enrolled for one academic year at Harvard. As far as California taxpayers are concerned, it gets even worse. Their prison system is so overcrowded that it’s reached a breaking point. Either the state finds a long-term solution, or the federal courts have warned that they’ll begin ordering the release of inmates, just to ease the crush.

In this two-hour broadcast, Ted Koppel examines how California got to this point and presents an inside view of the crisis through in-depth interviews with inmates, guards and prison officials at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. KOPPEL ON DISCOVERY: BREAKING POINT premieres on Discovery Channel on Sunday, October 7 at 9 PM (ET/PT)."

I call for decriminalization of marijuana laws. It's a start!

[Le Taz Hot]

1. Pssst.

We decriminalized it in 1978.

[One Sweet World]

3. I'm moving to cali

[PDenton]

2. my guess

"3-strikes" laws are probably to blame for the bulk of the increase in prison populations. Also, (I don't know if California has this law or not), Felony Murder laws make it more likely a person will serve a lengthy sentence, since in Felony Murder if you are in any way assosciated with a murder, you are as guilty as the person who actually performed the murder. So in a bank robbery, the guy driving the getaway car is as guilty as the guy who goes into the bank and shoots the teller or bystander. Even somebody who knows about a crime that is going to happen, but remains silent, is guilty.

Also, how many of the inmates in California are either here illegally, or the offspring of illegal immigrants? California still has a large growing population, much of it is due to legal and illegal immigration and high birthrates among immigrants.

[Le Taz Hot]

4. Its actually two-fold.

Three-strikes AND the federal mandatory drug sentencing laws. We DID make a breakthrough, however, on one of the Propositions a few years back that sends you to rehab for a first-time drug conviction. As far as I know, we don't have a Felony Murder Law.

I'm opposed to illegal immigration but I would NEVER go so far as to make the claim you do in your last sentence. :scared:

[EFerrari]

6. llegal immigrants have one of the lowest crime rates in the country

excepting the fact that they have no papers.

[PDenton]

7. why?

I was just saying population growth in California is a factor, and putting the context of population growith into perspective. All the population growth in California is due to increased immigration and fecundity of immigrants. In reality California loses more people to other states each year than it gains from people entering from other states, so foreign immigration is the sole source of population growth.

As populations grow, demands on the prison increase. Especially since the majority of people who leave California are middle class. A larger bulk of the population will be just the types that will find themselves lured or trapped into the criminal justice system for long sentences. The situation in California is only going to get worse if California cannot keep and hold middle class professionals. So far California's politics has been dominated by a pro-population growth strategy, and that worked OK for a while but many Rust-Belt states, as an example, are focusing on the quality of their population vs. pure growth in numbers. They are seeking ways to attract "knowledge workers" to their cities, the very same kinds of people who are growing weary of California.

[Tian Zhuangzhuang]

5. In all fairness Prison does come with free health care. nt

[flashl]

8. Student protests about investments in for-profit-prisons were successful

After students learn that schools of higher education were investing in prison stocks.

Their success to have universities to divest clearly indicates education systems’ involvement in prison stocks for profit and it makes clear that every sector in the U.S. is economically benefiting from the prison population for income.

The product for this economical success is black/latino males.