Sometimes, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is such a dick that it's hilarious. A big, hairy cock when he writes a majority opinion, he's just a turtle-headed little prick when he's dissenting. Which is what he did in opposition to yesterday's majority
opinion, written by vote swinger Anthony Kennedy, that said to California, in essence, "You've had years to fix your fucked-up, overcrowded prison system, to the point where you can't even provide medical care to the severely-ill inmates, but it's just gotten worse, so fuck you guys. If you can't fix it, set a whole bunch free. We're going on two decades of this shit, so do something about it." Or, in even otherer words, housing prisoners at 200% of capacity is inhumane. So the Supreme Court upheld a three-judge district court
decision that told California to release over 40,000 prisoners. That's why we have courts, allegedly, as a place of final redress. The government won't take care of something? You go to court.
In his dissent, as he does any time the court grants rights to anyone not wealthy or powerful, Scalia went full douchebag in
accusing the majority of "affirming the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation’s history." Of the released convicts, Scalia says, "(M)any will undoubtedly be fine physical specimens who have developed intimidating muscles pumping iron in the prison gym," apparently getting his view of prison solely from Oz and MSNBC weekend programming. Yes, Big Tony, those hard-bodied men are just so intimidating and ready to do nasty things to you. Makes a judge sweaty and throbbing just thinking about it, no? Oh, no, Big Tony, don't put your hand under your robe as you watch
Lockup; don't let your desire turn into hatred for the very people you want to roughly ball in the group shower.
Scalia blathers on about "the inevitable murders, robberies, and rapes to be committed by the released inmates," as well as "the terrible things sure to happen as a consequence of this outrageous order," which would be true if it weren't in direct contradiction to the reason why California prisons are so goddamned crowded in the first place.
See, California loves locking up non-violent offenders. In fact, just back in April, Governor Jerry Brown signed an
order transferring thousands of 'em to local jails or house arrest, once the state raised the money to help out the counties. Yeah, it seems that last year alone, the state prison system took in 47,000 people who were parole violators sentenced to a maximum of 90 days. That's 47,000 people to process, to examine, to fill the beds in the prison gymnasiums (which probably cuts down on the number of hunky cons for Scalia to fantasize about), to prevent real access to medical care. This is not to mention all the non-violent drug offenders given ridiculously long sentences.
In his punk-ass dissent, Sammy "Sobbin' Spouse" Alito said that the release would "have a major and deleterious effect on public safety." What Scalia and Alito leave out as they quiver like cold pussies is the deleterious effect that treating human beings like shit might have when those ripped felons get out of prison.
While Scalia refuses to even think about prisoners as anything other than scum who deserve nothing more than a blanket and a bowl and a cold space on a hard floor while getting raped and beaten constantly and then being forced to have one's torn anus heal without medical attention, Alito at least wants to do something about the health care received by the prisoners: "Is it plausible that none of these deficiencies can be remedied without releasing 46,000 prisoners? Without taking that radical and dangerous step, exam tables and counter tops cannot properly be disinfected? None of the system’s dilapidated facilities can be repaired? Needed medications and equipment cannot be purchased and used? Staff vacancies cannot be filled? The qualifications of prison physicians cannot be improved? A better records management system cannot be developed and implemented?" By the way, if the Supreme Court has to suggest disinfecting medical exam tables, then things have gotten out of hand.
It's delightfully cute to see Alito say what prisoner advocates have been saying for years. In fact, if any of these things had occurred in the dozen years since the case was first filed, it wouldn't have come to an order to release 46,000 prisoners. Besides California? Fuckin' broke, man. Welcome to years of Republican rule. And, as mentioned before, California was already moving towards prisoner releases and alternative incarceration.
Of course, then there's
this: "In three years, a private-prison construction and management company, the Corrections Corporation of America, has seen the value of its contracts with
soar from nearly $23 million in 2006 to about $700 million three months ago – all without competitive bidding." Yeah, whenever there's some horror occurring to the poor and disenfranchised, you can bet there's a profit motive somewhere.
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