Prison crisis 3 decades in the making (blaming Brown)

[madmusic]

By Dan Walters - Bee Columnist

The roots of California's prison crisis -- too many inmates crammed into too little space -- can be traced to a change in the political climate three decades ago.

Having suffered severe losses in statewide and legislative elections in 1974, the California Republican Party shifted to the right and adopted crime -- or, more accurately, fear of crime -- as an issue to hammer then-Gov. Jerry Brown and a very liberal Legislature that had repeatedly spurned bills to toughen punishment for offenses large and small.

It worked. Republican challengers ousted several Democratic legislators by accusing them of being soft on crime and threw a scare into Brown, who had vetoed a death penalty bill and shifted the state Supreme Court to the left.

To blunt the crime issue, Brown began trumpeting a new and tougher attitude, signing a series of lock-'em-up bills. Not surprisingly, the long-stable prison population (about 20,000 inmates) began to increase, and Brown came under pressure to launch a prison construction program. He did it, albeit on a very small scale and with obvious reluctance, but under his Republican successor, George Deukmejian, construction picked up steam.

more: http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/83001.html

[fooj]

1. F*ck the SacBee. They write nothing but garbage.

Brown doesn't give a fig what the SacBee prints. He's his own man. Thank goodness for that.

[madmusic]

2. It's a pretty good paper.

A lot better than the LA Times. It's not a bad article either.

[fooj]

4. Ok. I'll give you that...

it's BETTER than the LA Times. I'm from California and the SacBee has been writing crap about Brown FOREVER. Truly.

[brook]

7. NY Times mag article

yesterday - "The Comeback Kid". Deborah Solomon asked the questions.

Then how would you describe yourself politically?

I’m very independent. There’s a great line from Friedrich Nietzsche: A thinking man can never be a party man.

She also asked him how he felt about answering to a Republican governor. "You don't answer to a governor. An Attorney General is autonomous."

I'm really happy to see Moonbeam back in action!

[acmejack]

3. Has anything ever been the republiclown's fault?

Short answer, I don't think so.

[fooj]

5. Surely you jest.

BINGO!!!!!:toast:

[datadiva]

6. Thats total bullshit

From a total bullshit red neocon newspaper (rag)!

[MoseyWalker]

8. Three strikes, tough on crime

has resulted in what is known to many, and should be known to all - it doesn't work to diminish crime, and those thrown into the prisons for many, many years for relatively insignificant crimes are ruined for life. As are their relatives to some degree, and their spouses/loved ones, as are their children.

This was the first step of the fascisistic takeover. Accustom the populace to having everyone locked up or on parole/probation - in other words, under the control of the state.

Most of the people in prisons, for LONG terms, are not violent offenders.

This is an injustice not only to those incarcerated, but to those who love those people. This is also an injustice to the society, as they are no longer "paying their own way" through life, but dependent upon society to eat, and keep warm.

This was the first salvo in the war against the american people.