Saturday, July 16, 2005

Prison Reform Needed Badly

We've always known that too much money went into keeping prisoners happy. I talked about it a little when Martha Stewart was under "house arrest" in her million dollar home or whatever the mansion was worth. Just recently I heard on talk radio that it costs somewhere from $20,000 to $35,000 a year per prisoner. That's outrageous! But in case there are still those who doubt that US prisons aren't too expensive...

I've said before, although unfortunately there's no written record of it in this blog, that our prisons are so nice that people in financial trouble might as well do something illegal instead of trying to survive on their own.

Well, it's finally happened.

William Crutchfield shot his mailman seven times. He raced to the police station and turned himself in. He was heavily in debt and wanted to commit a federal crime so he could go to prison and get three square meals a day and have nothing to worry about. This is a smart and clever man. He recognized the problem in our prison system and took advantage of it.

Too much of our tax dollars are wasted in keeping prisoners happy, healthy, available to video games, the Internet, and anything else they could possibly want. Someone has finally directly taken advantage of it and exposed its flaw.

Too bad it took something this drastic to bring about a change. And yet I doubt there will be any changes made at all...

Edmond the Hun

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As I've said before, "Bring back Alcatraz!!!" I think the facilities are admirable ~ ocean view, access to the noise of happee people living happee lives 10 miles away, all drinks on the rocks, a safe, fenced in play area, and serveillance from all levels for every cell to prevent anyone coming to bother them. I know alot of people who want those things and pay a bunch to have them. Too bad they pay just as much to go tour the abandoned prison. -Sanguine

p.s.
Superhero, nobody believes me about prison conditions either. Long Live Alcatraz! ;)