CA Plans to Transfer Inmates to Other States

By TChris, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 01:41:44 PM EST
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Using electronic monitoring and tight supervision, California could tackle the crisis of overcrowded prisons by returning nonviolent offenders (including nonviolent drug offenders) to to their homes. Instead, the state announced a "temporary" plan to ship inmates to other states, removing them from the families and support systems that are critical to rehabilitation.

The plan, which inmate advocates say is illegal and might be challenged in court, calls for transferring as many as 5,000 inmates to private facilities in Arizona, Oklahoma and Mississippi, beginning as early as April 2. First to go would be illegal immigrants already scheduled to be deported after serving their sentences, and low-risk offenders.

To entice prisoners to volunteer for a transfer, the state touts the comparatively luxurious conditions available in distant prisons, including access to ESPN. Reminding inmates that California prison conditions are crappy hardly seems like a sound prison management strategy. In any event, the recruitment program failed, forcing the state to transfer large numbers of inmates against their will.

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CA Plans to Transfer Inmates to Other States | 11 comments (11 topical)

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Not a brilliant idea (none / 0) (#1)
by HK on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 02:45:32 PM EST

This idea is wrong on so many levels, it's difficult to know where to start with comments.

This will not only cause extra stress to the inmates, but also to their families (who, let's not forget, are innocent) and is nost likely to permanently damage the bond between fathers and their children. I firmly believe that children need fathers or a positive male role model; inmates may not have set such a good example in the post, but many I have had contact with have told their children how to not end up in jail and encouraged them in their education.

Then, as TChris mentions above, this plan is detrimental to the concept of rehabilitation, giving those paroled not only the job of becoming an accepted part of society again, but also either laying down roots somewhere new or returning to a community they will have by then had little link with for so long.

The electronic tagging system looks good on paper, but reports of its success have been hotly contested in the UK (sorry, tried to find a link, but for some reason my internet is running like it's being powered by an old guy on a bicycle). Tagging alone is not enough; drugs programs, access to advice and support and the most stringent monitoring systems are vital to give this any hope of success.

All in all, this whole approach as outlined above is a band aid solution to a problem that has escalated to crisis proportions.

Punishment for the taxpayer. (none / 0) (#2)
by JSN on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 04:17:37 PM EST

So we have another bad example of a failed criminal justice/injustice system. If the taxpayers want retribution they they should pay a retribution tax so they know how much it costs them. In Iowa the tax would be about $200 per capita (including jails) and I suspect it would be more than twice that in California..

Punishment? (none / 0) (#3)
by HK on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 05:36:34 PM EST

An effective justice system benefits not punishes the law-abiding taxpayer. And for the record, this law-abiding taxpayer is not interested in retribution. It's about so much more than that. I guess it boils down to how much it is worth to society to have a fair, reasonable, humane justice system. It is a huge financial burden; maybe Governor Schwarzenegger shouldn't have given James Tilton, his relatively new Corrections Chief, a 70% pay rise on top of the salary of his predecessor upon his appointment (this was reported in the LA Times, but I can't link to the article as it has gone into the archives and has to be purchased now, but it reported Tilton's starting salary in the post as $220,000).

Nothing new (none / 0) (#4)
by aahpat on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 08:34:19 PM EST

The federal government, in promoting the building of more prisons, has for years contracted prison space across state lines. It is not uncommon for state and county prisons in mid state Pennsylvania to house federal detainees from New York City, D.C. and Boston.

This is all part of the federal government's prison-state justification campaign. Can't have a viable police state without a functioning prison industry. Unless you think you can get a budget to start building ovens and Zyklon B chambers again.

Oops. Sorry. That would make all of this fascism and we all know our American politicians define fascism as actually opening the ovens and gas chambers. Anything less is good old American democracy.

America's permanent "felon caste" (none / 0) (#5)
by aahpat on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 08:39:12 PM EST

"The New York Times in a January 25 editorial ("Closing the Revolving Door") talks of the "heavy price" we're paying for mandatory sentencing, begun some three decades ago. The piece identifies some of the obvious costs: we're shelling out $60 billion a year for corrections, and shuttering schools as new prisons open. And we've created a burgeoning "felon caste," with over "16 million...felons and ex-felons, who are often driven back to prison by policies that make it impossible for them to find jobs, housing or education."

Norm Stamper - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Law Enforcement Not Alone in Reticence to Speak Out

prison transfer (none / 0) (#6)
by diogenes on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 10:54:04 PM EST

In New York we built extra prisons, and as the inmate population dropped they will have to shut down. Surely it's smarter to board out prisoners for a time rather than build new California prisons that also might shut down in several years if inmate populations go down once you enlightened types manage to release all "nonviolent" and "lowrisk" offenders.

Fascinating... (none / 0) (#7)
by HK on Mon Feb 05, 2007 at 03:56:19 AM EST

..that there are people who use the word 'enlightened' as an insult.

If we keep treating people like animals... (none / 0) (#8)
by Bill Arnett on Mon Feb 05, 2007 at 01:15:38 PM EST

Homeland Security detention centers? (none / 0) (#9)
by carmen on Mon Feb 05, 2007 at 02:29:01 PM EST

Where exactly will they be sent? Could it be to one of the new Homeland Security detention centers run by Halliburton?

Corporations partnering with government is one of the 14 principles of fascism isn't it? It's long past time that the media turn a bright light on the ugly realities of our prisons. Our current system isn't working for our communities, for the addicted, for the impoverished, for families, or for our economy. It's working for corporate America and for those foreign owners who've bought into them though.

It's sickening to see what's being done to prisoners in our names all over this country.

low risk offenders (none / 0) (#10)
by diogenes on Mon Feb 05, 2007 at 10:22:11 PM EST

At this point Scooter Libby is a nonviolent, low risk offender, so I guess that means that if he lived in California he'd get house arrest at most, or maybe community service like Sandy Berger (who stole secret documents and lied about it) got.

"More Prisons "Who Profits? (none / 0) (#11)
by DDonna on Tue Feb 06, 2007 at 05:18:11 PM EST

Get Out of the Tax payers Pockets
And Stop making Slaves for Profit

"The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners lobby our officials for longer prison sentances in order to expand their workforce. They've done a real good job.........

..........You can probebly bet your buttons privite prisons are taking the over-flow of prisoners from Calif.....to sweat shops. There they'll work for Corporate Stockholders for pennies.....Some will work for the military industial complex; Building war products.

There are approximately 2.2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the worlds prison population, but only 5% of the worlds people.

The truth is prisoner's are big money,prisons;If you follow the money trail:Who profits? Three strikes law just adds to more cream on
the top for those who profit.
Has crime gotten worse? No,greed for money has gotten worse.Prisoners are surety on bonds,which are sold to banks,then securities,then to the public as holdings.

One has to search out why.
Why are CA.prisons over crowded? Who will pay while the profiteers ride? The taxpayers will pay,and Americans who are unjustly sentanced to long prison terms.If you look at the problem on the surface,you won't find the answer.It is in the root:
"Who Profits?"You might ask yourself will you be in the next prison you help pay for?
After all prisoners are big bussiness.On the sea of bonds your worth alot;your even worth three strikes,your easy money.

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/octubre/juev13/42carceles.html
http://www.wealth4freedom.com/money/jail-bond.htm

Solutions: http://dunwalke.com/