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Jewish World Review
May 25, 2011/ 21 Iyar, 5771
California Dreamin'
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Sometimes one has to laugh to keep from going nuts. So here's the laugher: on Monday the Supreme Court of the United States voted 5-4 to release upwards of 46,000 inmates from California's prison system, due primarily to "overcrowding." The joke? Alcatraz, one of nation's most famous prisons, which also happens to be located in California, has become a tourist attraction since it was closed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy in 1963.
Seriously, the decision was prompted by the Prison Litigation Relief Act (PLRA), part of which applies to "'civil action[s] with respect to prison conditions,' which are defined to include 'any civil proceeding arising under Federal law with respect to the conditions of confinement or the effects of actions by government officials on the lives of persons confined in prison…'" The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided California's prison conditions were "unconstitutional," and the highest Court in the land agreed.
California has two years to lower the number of prisoners by more than 33,000 and they have two weeks to submit a plan for doing so. Progressive Governor Jerry Brown's reflexive solution? Spend $302 million the state doesn't have to move 32,500 inmates to county jurisdiction by mid-2013. In other words, raise taxes — or else.
A better real-world solution? Identify every illegal alien in the prison system and hand them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ((ICE) for deportation. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, in 2004, the last year for which data was available, 12.4 percent of California inmates were illegal aliens. The state prisons currently hold 143,335 inmates. 12.4 percent of them equals 17,735 inmates. In other words, just enforcing immigration law, which ought be considered as valid as any other law — like the Prison Litigation Relief Act for example — and half the problem would be solved.
Yet as most Americans know by now, some laws are "more equal" than others. And a state like California, where illegals can "hide" in the open in sanctuary cities, receive in-state college tuition, and where socials services for illegals are not only readily available but advertised, it just isn't going to happen.
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Neither are other real-world, low-cost solutions such as the kind of accommodations used to house and feed disaster victims, including the recent innovation that turns tents into concrete shelters in less than 24 hours. Those tents are being contemplated for use in Japan, where hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless following the extensive damage Japan endured from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck that country on March 11. Of course, one can almost hear the legions of liberals who would decry the same "inhumane" living conditions for California prisoners that Japanese citizens would be happy to have — and perhaps the people of Joplin, Missouri as well.
In rendering the decision, SOTUS subsequently revealed the chasm between liberal and conservative thinking in this country. Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke for the Court's majority, saying suicidal prisoners were being held in "telephone booth-sized cages without toilets" and others, sick with cancer or in severe pain, died before being seen by a doctor. As many as 200 prisoners may live in a gymnasium, and as many as 54 may share a single toilet, he added. In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia called the ruling "staggering" and "absurd," noting that the Court's majority just ordered the release of "46,000 happy-go-lucky felons, adding "terrible things are sure to happen as a consequence of this outrageous order."
While conceding that no one with cancer should be denied a doctor, the fact that felons are living in constricted conditions with lousy bathroom accommodations must be balanced by the obvious tradeoff that releasing thousands of prisoners into the state's general population might engender. If I recall correctly, progressive antipathy with regard to the death penalty has always centered around the idea that it should be completely invalid in every case, due possibility that a single innocent individual could be put to death as a result. Since I am not a progressive, I cannot imagine how they would rationalize the death of a single innocent individual killed by one of Justice Scalia's happy-go-lucky felons released by this ruling. Again, maybe some innocent victims are more equal than others.
Is there any common ground? Perhaps. One would think it's time for some serious national soul-searching regarding America's drug laws. If most people can't stomach outright legalization, advocated by no less a conservative stalwart than the late William F. Buckley, certainly a level of de-criminalization makes sense. Again, like the tradeoff mentioned above, maintaining a similar prohibition to the one enacted — and then repealed — against liquor should serve as a historical guide. Nothing gave organized crime a greater boost than Prohibition. People incarcerated solely for drug possession seems utterly anachronistic at this point in time.
Oddly enough, legalization ought to be more a conservative position than a progressive one. As a group who decries the excesses of the Nanny State, it is hard to reconcile that position with the idea that the state should treat its citizens like children with respect to telling them what they can and can't ingest. More on this in another column.
Perhaps the most urgent national conversation with regard to this ruling is the one in which the electorate should decide what incarceration per se, is all about. This is one American who thinks that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, if one has managed to do something bad enough to land in prison, punishment, as opposed to rehabilitation, should be the primary focus of that incarceration. Yet in a society currently infatuated with therapy, where good and evil have been supplanted by well and unwell — and where many prisons are equipped with gymnasiums, air-conditioning, cable TV and endless theories of rehabilitation — the idea that crime requires retribution of a more spartan nature may be out of fashion.
A majority of the Supreme Court seems to think so. Is America itself truly that "happy-go-lucky?" Californians have long considered themselves to be on the "cutting edge of societal evolution." For their sake, here's hoping cutting edge remains a figurative expression.
d) The evidence supports the three-judge court's finding that "no other relief [would] remedy the violation," §3626(a)(3)(E)(ii). The State's claim that out-of-state transfers provide a less restrictive alternative to a population limit must fail because requiring transfers is a population limit under the PLRA. Even if they could be regarded as a less restrictive alternative, the three-judge court found no evidence of plans for transfers in numbers sufficient to relieve over-crowding. The court also found no realistic possibility that California could build itself out of this crisis, particularly given the State's ongoing fiscal problems. Further, it rejected additional hiring as a realistic alternative, since the prison system was chronically understaffed and would have insufficient space were adequate personnel retained. The court also did not err when it concluded that, absent a population reduction, the Receiver's and Special Master's continued efforts would not achieve a remedy.
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Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here.
Previously:
05/23/11: On Wisconsin!
05/20/11: Obama's Farewell to Israel Speech
05/16/11: ‘Krauthammering’ Amnesty
05/11/11: Bounce, My Backside
05/09/11: The Epicenter of Progressive Contempt for the Rule of Law
05/03/11: SEALing Osama's Fate
05/02/11: The Education plantation
04/24/11: The Bell May Toll for Jersey Toll Collectors
04/19/11: From Medical Dependency to Dependency on the Welfare State
04/14/11: Trumping the Debate
04/06/11: It Takes a Bigot to Expose a Death Cult
04/04/11: Charlie and Snookie --- and Barack
03/30/11: ‘Disabling’ America, One Lawsuit at a Time
03/28/11: The MSM Kills the ‘Kill Team’ Story
03/23/11: Another Military Scandal
03/21/11: Barry, Joe, Helen and Wisconsin Teachers
03/16/11: The Inevitable Viability of Conservatism
03/14/11: Progressives in Their Own Words
03/09/11: $61 Billion in Cuts --- Vs. $223 Billion in One Month of Spending
03/07/11: Bean Bag B.S.
03/02/11: A ‘Green’ Catastrophe in the Making
02/28/11: Ain't Noting Like the Real Thing
02/23/11: Progressive Rot vs. the ROTC
02/21/11: Wisconsin: Progressivism in All its Ugly Glory
02/18/11: News reporters --- or Narrative Shapers?
02/16/11: The Presidents Budget Proposal: An Obamination of Progressive Profligacy
02/14/11: Only Another 9/11 Will Alter the Illegal Immigration Status Quo
02/10/11: Is O'Reilly losing his touch or is he just irresponsible?
02/07/11: Tossing Britain Under the Bus
02/03/11: Starving the World In Order to Save It
01/31/11: Walking the Middle East Tightrope
01/27/11: Small-scale Terrorist Attacks: Big Strategy?
01/24/11: Jeffery Immelt: A Crony Capitalist In Charge of Job Creation
01/20/11: An ‘Intimate’ Prime-time Interview
01/17/11: Progressives: Always Angry, Newly Desperate
01/12/11: Twain vs. the Totalitarians
01/10/11: Politically Correct Passports?
01/05/11: Showdown at the Fiscal Corral
01/03/11: Reading the Constitution Aloud is a Good Start
12/30/10: Getting Our Moral Mojo Back
12/27/10: PC Airport Safety is an Oxymoron
12/23/10: Getting America Back On Track
12/20/10: A Collectivist Coalition of Convenience
12/15/10: The President Who Wasn't There
12/13/10: Tech-No!
12/08/10: A Lethal Military, Inclusive or Not
12/06/10: The ‘Unexpected’ Consequences of Progressivism
12/01/10: Leakers and Losers
11/29/10: ‘We Won’, Part One
11/22/10: Keep Your Hands Off My Constitution
11/17/10: Grope and Change
11/14/10: Taking Back Our Country, One School At a Time
11/11/10: Checks (and Balances), Please
11/08/10: Curtain Up, Progressives Down
11/04/10: Last Chance, Republicans
11/01/10: By Their Own Words Shall Ye Know Them
10/28/10: Progressive Determination to Undermine American Elections
10/25/10: Shock, but more importantly, action: De-Unionize Public Schools now
10/20/10: Multiculturalism? Check, Please
10/18/10: Healthcare: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ vs. The Constitution
10/11/10: Vote for Restoring the Rule of Law in November
10/11/10: Dems: Running From Clarity
10/07/10: Hypersensitive Hogwash
10/04/10: ‘Comprehensive’ Con Artists
09/29/10: Why Dems Are Going Down in November
09/27/10: The Unholiest of Unholy Alliances
09/22/10: Two Words for Republicans to Remember: ‘I Won’
09/20/10: Purging ‘Me First’ Politicians
09/17/10: No More ‘Lesser of Two Evils’
09/15/10: ‘Recovery’ Arms Race
09/13/10: ‘Bigots’ in the Majority --- Again?
09/09/10: Giving Voters Something to Vote For
09/07/10: Irresponsible Dems, Incomprehensible Bills
09/02/10: War Weary Americans vs. Implacable Islamists
08/31/10: A ‘Dream’ Debased
08/25/10: American ‘Bigots’ Versus Media Propagandists
08/23/10: Recovery Bummer
08/19/10: An Unholy Alliance of Radicals
08/16/10: You've Lost America, Mr. President
08/13/10: The Twin Towers of Progressive Disconnect
08/11/10: A Far Better ‘National Discussion’
08/09/10: It's ‘Only’ One Dead Nun
08/06/10: Incremental Tyranny
08/04/10: Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts
08/02/10: The Arizona Ruling: a Gift for November
07/29/10: The United Cities of America
07/26/10: JournoList: ‘Coordinated’ Ideological Bankruptcy
07/20/10: Go For Broke Or Get Out of the Way
07/14/10: You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe…
07/12/10: $33-an-hour--For Sleeping On the Job
07/08/10: Extortionist Government
07/06/10: ‘Commerce Clause’ Totalitarians
07/01/10: Another Public School Travesty in MA
06/30/10: Calling YOUR Bluff, Mr. President
06/28/10: A Trifecta of Progressive Corruption
06/23/10: Plug the Darn Hole --- In Our Border
06/21/10: Our Empty-Suit-in-Chief
06/16/10: Betraying Our Children
06/14/10: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt?
06/07/10: Politically Correct Warfare
06/01/10: Bill Maher's ‘Black’ President
05/25/10: A Mosque At Ground Zero
05/23/10: Libs Stand Tall --- For Mexico
05/19/10: The 'Unintended Consequences' of Liberalism
05/17/10: 'Los' Suns: Stuck on Stupido
05/12/10: Union Audacity: Yes We Will!
05/10/10: Greeks, Leaks and and Double-Speak
05/05/10: Twelve Million Illegals --- or Thirty?
05/02/10: Republicans: Playing Not to Lose Doesn't Cut It
04/28/10: Arizona: Progressivism's Waterloo?
04/26/10: Son of Amnesty
04/22/10: Mortgages and Moral Meltdowns
04/20/10: Bashing Christians — Or Gays?
04/15/10: Personal Integri-‘tea’
04/12/10: Fools, Tools and Ghouls
04/08/10: (Tea) Party On
04/05/10: The Triumph of Mediocrity
04/02/10: Two For the Road
03/29/10: The Innate Immorality of Liberalism
03/24/10: The Art of War
03/22/10: I Want My Country Back
03/18/10: A Perpetual Process
03/17/10: American Exhibitionists
03/15/10: A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity
03/10/10: Little Things Mean A Lot
02/03/10: Budgetary Fork in the Road
02/01/10: Liberal Economic Illiteracy
01/27/10: ‘Roe-ing and Wade-ing’ Back to Reason
01/25/10: Arrogance When Up, Denial When Down
01/20/10: Connecting the Educational Dots
01/19/10: The Next Tea Party?
01/15/10: The Myth That Keeps on Giving
01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport
01/11/10: Secrets and Lies
01/08/10: Embracing Bigotry — or Rejecting Bullying?
01/06/10: Hanging by an Ideological Thread
01/04/10: Our ‘Wonderama’ Bureaucracy
12/30/09: A Day Off
12/28/09: Dangerous Myths
12/25/09: I, Me, Mine
12/23/09: A Very Harry Christmas
12/21/09: My Opinon
12/18/09: The Party of Repeal
12/15/09: Privileged Exemption
11/30/09: ‘Settled’ Science and Unsettled Children
11/30/09: American Sharia Law
11/23/09:The Trial (Travesty) of the Century
11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers
11/01/09: ‘Opting Out’ of Insanity?
10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required
10/26/09: Communism: Nazism With Better PR
10/21/09: Just Asking
10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality
10/14/09: News you can use …
10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness
10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency
09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness
09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels
09/11/09: 9/11 Cannot Be Sanitized
09/08/09: ‘Truthers’ and Consequences
09/01/09: A ‘Paper Trail’ Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2011, Arnold Ahlert
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