Monday, August 24, 2009

Think of it as a tax on your life and limb....

Government's first responsibility is to protect the citizenry from criminals. Ask yourself are the anarchists winning?


California jail release vote due By Rajesh Mirchandani BBC News, Los Angeles

California lawmakers are to vote on a plan to release 27,000 prisoners early.
The proposal is part of a solution to a $26bn dollar budget deficit and the problem of chronic prison overcrowding.
It comes soon after a prison riot in which hundreds of inmates were hurt. The prison was holding well over its official capacity.
A federal court recently ruled that conditions in California's prisons were appalling and ordered inmate numbers to be cut by 40,000.
The early release of thousands of prisoners could save California more than a billion dollars as well as easing overcrowding.
Opponents of the idea say it will put dangerous criminals back on the streets.
Thanks to tough laws the state has nearly 170,000 people in prisons that were designed for far fewer.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks releasing low-level offenders - like those near the end of their sentences - would be a better use of scarce resources.
However, no politician here wants to be seen as soft on crime. So, lawmakers are divided but they must reach agreement.
Just two weeks ago, prisoners rioted at a facility near Los Angeles, setting fire to cell blocks. More than 100 were injured at the California Institution for Men in the southern town of Chino. Racial tensions were blamed.

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