How conservatives Think

This article from CNN talks about Higher education spending vs prison spending, but the idea is the same. Like higher education costs, conservatives want to cut welfare... either directly or by doing something stupid like making welfare recipients pay for their own drug testing. So what happens? The citizens quit welfare, turn to crime, go to jail where the cost is $50,000 a year-- more than twice what welfare would have given them. Makes sense, doesn't it?

It's a Free Country... Isn't It?

One out of every 100 Americans is in jail. One out of 39 are in jail, paroled or somehow in the criminal system. More African (Americans) are in jail than were slaves before the Civil War. And why does al qaeda hate us? They're jealous of our freedom!

Click on picture for larger/more complete view

 

Was it Voltaire?

I think it was he who said, "You can tell the degree of a country's civilization by looking at its prisons." Or something like that anyway.

The US has the greatest percentage of its population in jail of any country in the world. (That includes Iran and other so-called dictatorships.) Many (most?) prisons are for-profit enterprises whose job it is to squeeze the most out of the inmates while returning the least to them.

Often, if you want to complain about inhuman conditions, you have to PAY to file a grievance. Such would be impossible in a civilized country.

Yeah, let freedom ring!

No Helmet???

Dostoevsky said, “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons”

Check this out... smuggled out of a Washington State prison. Check out: If client is to remain on restraint board for longer than 2 hours... Ouch!

(click here for a more detailed look)

But wait! There's more... check this out too...  And this is for someone who's supposed to be suicidal, and therefore emotionally fragile. How much worse for the "stable" ones?