CBS News: 60 Minute Special: Mike Wallace, Pelican Bay State Prison

Source:FreeState Now

Pelican Bay State Prison houses some of the worst criminals in California. Which means some of the worst in the United States as well when you have cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and other large cities with crime problems. But that doesn’t mean these people should be treated like animals either. And if you look at their solitary confinement unit that is essentially how those inmates are treated locked in a cage twenty-three hours a day or more. 

Inmates with nothing to do all day, but stare at walls, perhaps try to sleep and then be given what is called food. Stuff that you might serve animals instead that doesn’t fill adult men up for the most part without enough to eat. When you treat people like animals especially a violent criminal population that you see in a Pelican Bay, that is exactly what you are going to get animal behavior from people who’ve hurt and killed people in the past. 

Violent felons who won’t hesitate to hurt innocent people again in the future if they feel threatened. Because this is what they know and what they do and haven't been given help to deal with their violent anger. Which is my main problem with Pelican Bay because it makes its violent population even worst. Rather than working to improve the behavior of these inmates.

Solitary Watch: Pat Nolan: 'On Prison Fellowships'

Source:Solitary Watch- talking to former prison inmate Pat Nolan.

Source:FreeState Now

"PatNolan Part1"

From Solitary Watch

Former Nixon White House Counsel Chuck Colson, after he got out of prison in I believe the mid 1970s due to Watergate, started a prison fellowship program to prepare prison inmates for life on the outside, both while they are still prison, but for ex-offenders who’ve already been released from prison. Something our prisons should be doing today, but aren’t for the most part. Which is why we have so many ex-offenders who return to prison.

If you operate a prison, then you’re doing it at taxpayer expense. Even if it is a private prison and with tax dollars being so precious and limited, the idea should be to get the best investment possible for those limited tax dollars that for the most part come from hardworking taxpayers. 

So if you’re going to have so many people in prison at the same time, how about give them incentive to improve their lives while in prison. But also so when they get out of prison, which most American inmates do. So they don’t come back to prison again.

CBS News: 'Stephen Slevin- Awarded $15.5 Million Settlement After Being Held in Solitary Confinement For Two Years in NM Jail'

Source:CBS News- "Stephen Slevin at the time of his arrest for drunken driving in August 2005 (left) and shortly after being released from solitary confinement in May 2007." From CBS News.

"A man who was arrested for drunken driving and then held in solitary confinement for two years without trial was awarded $15.5 million in one of the largest federal civil rights settlements in history, a southern New Mexico county announced Tuesday.

The settlement stems from mediation ordered by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Dona Ana County was appealing a lower court decision that upheld a $22 million judgment that was awarded last year to former county inmate Stephen Slevin."

From CBS News 

I don't know all the details of this case, but just from the outside at least, what happened to Stephen Slevin in New Mexico, looks like cruel and unusual punishment. Perhaps a credit to the man's character that he didn't go completely crazy and try to kill himself, because not only was he completely isolated not just from the outside world, but completely isolated from the rest of the jail and not even allowed to shave or perhaps bathe while he was in solitary confinement. As the jury in this lawsuit declared and awarded Mr. Slevin was his apparent cruel and unusual punishment.

CNN: NewsRoom- ‘A Look at Rikers Island Jail’

Source:CNN- with a piece about New York City's Rikers Island Jail.

“A former corrections official explains what it’s like for Dominique Strauss-Kahn to live inside Rikers Island jail.”

From CNN

Rikers Island Jail is probably the size of a lot of prisons in big states. And part of that has to do with the fact that New York City is a city of 7.5-8M people, a size of a big state in America. Not a place any good and free person would want to go to, meaning Rikers Island, which is why we should never put ourself in a position that would land us in a jail/prison like that.

But what Rikers is in the business to do, is to house defendants who are awaiting trial, as well as inmates who are doing short sentences. Rikers does a very good job of this. The inmates who behave themselves and have good records, are able to work and go to school as well as work on their own cases. And they can go to religious services if they choose to, as well as other rehabilitation services.Self-improvement services including drug treatment, which is a big reason why we have so many people in prison in this country.

This is not just a jail where people are simply warehoused, but a place where they can make good use of the time that they do there, which should be purpose of jails and prisons.

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Team For Anti Oppress: 'GROWING UP IN PRISON JUVENILES SERVING LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE'

Source:Team For Anti Oppress- with a look at life without parole for juveniles.

Source:FreeState Now 

"Exerpt from: A short documentary about juveniles sentenced to life in prison without parole. 

Original short documentary made by Josh Sahib and Sydney Prather. The University of Alabama: Documenting Justice, 2010." 

From Team For Anti Oppress 

I get the idea of if you commit the crime, you should do the time, regardless of how old you were when you committed the crime. But we have adults who commit murder who get out of their crimes while they're still alive. Adolescents simply don't have the same rights, freedoms, and responsibilities, that adults have. So because of that they shouldn't pay the same prices for their crimes that adults do. 

If someone commits murder as a teenager, I'm all in favor of sentencing that person to 25 to life, 30 to life, 40 to life, and make that person have to go through all sorts of steps just before they're even eligible for a parole hearing. Like taking personal responsibility for their crimes and being really sorry for their crimes. But just to throw that person's life away with no hope of ever having freedom on the outside, seems almost as cruel as what the offender did to their victim or victims. 

Outside The Beltway: James Joyner- 'California Must Release 40,000 Prisoners'

Source:The New York Times- California prison over crowding.

"Citing the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and usual punishment, the U.S. Supreme court has upheld an order for California to release 38,000 to 46,000 prisoners from its overcrowded jails." 

From Outside The Beltway

America as a country as well as its fifty States is essentially broke and to compound these problems we have overcrowded prisons across the country where we have to support these inmates out of general revenue taxpayer money. Prisons don't pay for themselves and inmates hardly pay for anything as far as taking care of themselves. Almost everything they receive in prison is subsidized by the state. (Meaning taxpayers)

To compound that problem, we have 2 million inmates in America and hundreds of thousands of these inmates are non-violent offenders and a lot of these offenders are drug offenders, meaning users, so we have a three layer problem with our corrections system. A bad economy with shrinking state revenue and overcrowded prisons which is also partially but not completely the fault of the state. 

A large part of that is also personal responsibility (or the lack of it) not finishing school having kids too soon. But government is at fault as well, because we have too many as what Classical Liberal Economist Milton Friedman called "Bad Laws". We arrest to many people and send them to prison for crimes that aren't a big threat to society. Crimes and I'm thinking of marijuana, prostitution, and gambling, where we would be better off regulating these activities instead. 

We don't handle our other non-violent offenders that opposed some threat to society and need to be dealt with very well. Like petty thieves (to use as an example) and we send them to prison for long sentences. Where we would be better off sending those people to county jail, halfway houses or supervised probation, where they can pay their debt to society but where they are also contributing to society as well. doing community service, working paying for their room and board, etc. and staying out of trouble to stay out of prison. So we save our very limited prison space for the people who need to occupy it our actual dangerous criminals. 

And the other problem that we have is that we don't prepare our inmates that we release to a large degree for life on the outside and then wonder why they commit other crimes and come back to prison. For example releasing long-term inmates from prison straight from solitary confinement after being in solitary confinement for long stretches. And thats just one example. 

Governor Jerry Brown of California understands these problems because he's the Governor of a state with the largest prison population in America. And with the largest public debt and deficit of any state in America, as well as being the former Attorney General of California as well. Which is why he set up a new program that releases non-violent offenders from prison. And sends them to halfway houses and supervised probation instead. Non-violent Offenders with good prison records that it and I wish him and his state the best.