[lbo-talk] Prisons, Policy, and Pryor

Chuck Grimes c123grimes at att.net
Wed May 2 15:49:58 PDT 2012



> Funny coincidence. Here is a clip of Richard on the set of "Stir Crazy" I
> posted on my tumblr account ( http://jworksarchive.tumblr.com ) last month
> that doesn't get as much play. (I think CG will appreciate a lot of my
> tumblr postings,
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EvSgPowOO8c


> As far as her prisoner advocacy. I think she has done an admirable job.
> She has spent decades trying to bring the issue to the left and to the
> general public. Maybe abolishing prisons is not a good rallying cry - but
> we should abolish almost everything that makes up the prison system in
> this country.

------------

I certainly did, so thanks. I spent about ten minutes into the Newport Jazz Festival 1962. A lot of memories. Just one, I finally got a good FM radio of my own about then and started listening to jazz. It was a rare station in LA and I forgot the call letters. So the bands on that DVD represent a good cross-section and capture the period. Lambert, Hendricts and Ross were very popular. Mouning had several versions. My favorite was by Oliver Nelson.

Great on Pryor too. Pryor was also a flash from he passed and the brillant tracks on the human condition, its tragic-comic regions of perfect pitch.

Nice post on prisons, police, policy But the answer to the problems need heavy weight sociology and stats to specifically identify critical points of attack and change. Handwaving at poverty and discrimination is not enough. We need programmatic reform systems within the institutions we are stuck with.

My preferred method of attack is law. We've got too many damned laws. These amount to tools of prosecution, regulations of probation and parole with jail time, i.e persecution and oppression. There is also a systems of fees that needs a lot of attention. Another area is that the Calif Corrections has its own legal system of administrative law and regulations that need drastic overhaul. Prisons are a whole institutional society outside the normal checks and balances of power where civil rights, the bill rights, rights to due process, fair hearing, and legal representation disappear.

CG



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