[lbo-talk] NPR on California's Prison Crisis

[Left-Wing Wacko]

Surprisingly NPR actually had a pretty decent segment on California's
prison crisis this afternoon.  It may have painted a little bit too
rosy of a picture when there were actually rehabilitation programs,
less racial segregation, less violence and racism between inmates, and
less recidivism.  But what the story did well was to place the blame
on the "tough on crime" movement and the "3 strikes you're out" law
instigated by the right-wing in this country.  Another sad point is
that membership in the prison guards union has exploded and its
supports all these reactionary measures to keep people in prisons
longer.

Sheldon

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111843426

"The men in the cafeteria lived alone in their own prison cells.
Almost every one of them was in school or learning a professional
trade. The cost of housing them barely registered on the state budget.
And when these men walked out of Folsom free, the majority of them
never returned to prison.

It was a record no other state could match.

Things have changed. California's prisons are all in a state of
crisis. And nowhere is this more visible than at Folsom today.

Overcrowded, Underfunded

Folsom was built to hold 1,800 inmates. It now houses 4,427.

It's once-vaunted education and work programs have been cut to just a
few classes, with waiting lists more than 1,000 inmates long.

Officers are on furlough. Its medical facility is under federal
receivership. And like every other prison in the state, 75 percent of
the inmates who are released from Folsom today will be back behind
bars within three years.

California's prison system costs $10 billion a year. Its crumbling,
overcrowded facilities are home to the highest recidivism rate in the
country. And the state that was once was the national model in
corrections has become the model every state is now trying to avoid."

Continues at link above.
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