JERRY BROWN'S "SOLUTION"

After reading in the news today about Governor Jerry Browns proposed solution to the overcrowding of the State prison populations, I felt inclined to weigh in. To begin with, we get conflicting reports regarding whether crime is going up or down these days. It varies state to state, of course, but there are national statistics for the US overall. For years now we’ve been hearing and reading how our nations crime rates have been trending downward in greater and greater numbers, even as our prison populations continued to grow exponentially. I wont quote figures or charts here, they are available to anyone who wants to look. And more and more, especially in the last few years, we are seeing prison advocacy groups gaining traction, perhaps because we are reaching a ‘tipping point’ where so many americans have either gone to prison, or have or know of families or friends who have been, or currently are, encarcerated … who have been touched, affected in some way by the nightmare of this hellish system. For in the USA, the ‘land of the free’, one in 100 adult americans is serving time in our nations jails and prisons. Its an appalling statistic.

Interestingly enough, in 2011 when a Federal Judge ordered California to reduce its prison population due to overcrowding and inhumane treatment of offenders (California prisons 'cruel and unusual,' U.S. high court rules) we started to see reports from the FBI and Law Enforcement about how our crime rates are suddenly increasing (!!), in particular in California! I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe these reports are being manufactured, er, collected, and reported on to support the agendas of the very institutions that stand to gain monetarily from the continued growth/expansion of our state and federal prisons. Of course they don’t want to see our prisons closing!! They don't want less prisoners, they want, need, MORE. Cha ching. Do you have ANY idea how much money is made and by who, in this prison industrial complex??? Again, I wont expand on that in this post, the information is out there for all to see and discover. Rather than complain about being overly taxed, all you taxpayers do your homework! Its BILLIONS of our tax dollars that are funding this massive system. WE fund it, THEY profit from it. Who are THEY? THEY are everyone associated in some way by the prison industrial complex…law enforcement, prison employees (the prison guard union is extremely powerful), retail businesses that sell products to prisons, our legislators and law makers who are in the pockets of the industries that profit, it goes on and on, don’t kid yourself that this is all about ‘justice’, solely about keeping society ‘safe’. Don’t be naïve and so quick to believe everything you read, every scary headline about how your communities are now less safe as more and more prisoners are released from their sentences early. IF there IS more crime, IF violent offenders ARE being released, then look to the motives of the prison boards that are selecting such inmates to release and what their ultimate goal in doing so is.

Just my thoughts on Governor Jerry Browns epiphany on this Tuesday morning in sunny California.

"Many laws as certainly make bad men, as bad men make many laws." ~Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations