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At $75,560, Housing a Prisoner in California Now Costs More Than a Year at Harvard (latimes.com)

The cost of imprisoning each of California's 130,000 inmates is expected to reach a record $75,560 in the next year, the AP reported. From the article: That's enough to cover the annual cost of attending Harvard University and still have plenty left over for pizza and beer Gov. Jerry Brown's spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes a record $11.4 billion for the corrections department while also predicting that there will be 11,500 fewer inmates in four years (alternative source) because voters in November approved earlier releases for many inmates. The price for each inmate has doubled since 2005, even as court orders related to overcrowding have reduced the population by about one-quarter. Salaries and benefits for prison guards and medical providers drove much of the increase. The result is a per-inmate cost that is the nation's highest -- and $2,000 above tuition, fees, room and board, and other expenses to attend Harvard. Since 2015, California's per-inmate costs have surged nearly $10,000, or about 13%. New York is a distant second in overall costs at about $69,000.

333 comments

  1. we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We'll pay to put people in prison, yet we won't pay to educate people. Maybe it's just me, but perhaps, just perhaps this nation has its priorities backwards.

    1. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Are they suggesting that Harvard students should be housed in California prisons?

    2. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Getting tough is easier than getting smart when it comes to getting votes.

    3. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So...Rob a Bank, get a free education?

      In fall 2016, some 20.5 million students are expected to attend American colleges and universities

      This is one trillion five hundred billion dollars.

      Fuck You.

    4. Re:we'll pay for prison by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      We pay a lot for education but what are we getting for the dollars?

      The problem is not the funding. Funding has been going through the roof for 50 years.

      Re prisons

      1. how about finding other ways to punish besides prison
      2. how about decriminalizing drugs, prostitution and gambling.

      keep prison for rapists and murders and thieves

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    5. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      This is one trillion five hundred billion dollars.

      Yet the US spends some $600 billion on the largest jobs program in the world, the United States Armed Forces. What do we have for a return on our investment on that? Not much. At least you go and spend money on giving your populace a decent education, they have a chance to compete in the world. Instead we'd rather send them off to prison, to be cannon fodder in some third world shithole or otherwise get them hooked to opioids.

      Great plan we've got here.

      Fuck You.

      Fuck you too.

    6. Re:we'll pay for prison by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then they'd refer to it as the slahmah.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    7. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is not the funding. Funding has been going through the roof for 50 years.

      Then why is it that most college graduates in this country are in debt up to their earballs in student loans?

      Something doesn't add up here....

    8. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Portugal uses money to get jobs for people with drug issues. They end up paying less due to savings from prison.

    9. Re:we'll pay for prison by wisnoskij · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It is all about priorities. If you don't pay to put people in prison, you get a pile of dead people. If you don't pay to send people to university, the person just enters the job marker earlier and in general does has better economic statistics.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    10. Re:we'll pay for prison by edx93 · · Score: 1

      This. And, from what I understand, many prisons are privately run with revenue determined by the number of people incarcerated. Talk about some f'ed up incentives.

    11. Re:we'll pay for prison by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      perhaps this nation has its priorities backwards.

      Not at all. *Ignorance is strength*. And given its nature, the prison system is just chattel slavery v2.0. Something they should count when they talk about 'costs'.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    12. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...when it comes to getting votes.

      But not when it comes to paying for it.

    13. Re:we'll pay for prison by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      How many days in the "war on terror" is that?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    14. Re: we'll pay for prison by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Portugal also has no private prison system.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    15. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It also gets you sweet lobbying kickbacks from the private prison system. A win-win, except for the people getting fucked over by said system, the taxpayers funding the whole thing, and society in general when people come out more messed up than when they went in.

    16. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Are they suggesting that Harvard students should be housed in California prisons?

      That wouldn't be a bad idea. A 1978 documentary, Scared Straight!, had a group of juvenile delinquents meet harden convicts who scared the crap out of them to convince that a life of crime doesn't pay. Such an experience for the graduating class of Harvard might convince future Wall Street traders and politicians to be more ethical in their dealings.

    17. Re:we'll pay for prison by Koby77 · · Score: 0

      You can't force someone to learn at school and act correctly. Also, we may be getting our money's worth for the violent offenders. I realize that some people don't like the cost of housing prisoners, but what is the alternative cost? If released, how likely is a homicide convict likely to repeat? How much would you be willing to pay to prevent a loved-one from being added to the victim list? $80k seems like a small price to pay if it would prevent another murder.

    18. Re:we'll pay for prison by sycodon · · Score: 1

      Ya know, I expect that if these people currently in prison actually went into the armed services, their chances of committing crime and ending up in prison would been cut dramatically.

      More than one hoodlum in the early 20th Century who was offered a choice of Prison or the Army ended up being a decorated solider.

      I believe that Colonel David H. Hackworth was given an option by the judge...prison or, in his case, the Merchant Marines.

      The Reality of the Armed services changes you, usually for the better.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    19. Re:we'll pay for prison by Train0987 · · Score: 1

      We do pay to educate people. They need to want that education in order for it to take.

    20. Re:we'll pay for prison by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      Then why is it that most college graduates in this country are in debt up to their earballs in student loans?

      The sub-assistant to the assistant vice night dean of the electron subdepartment of the atom department of the molecular department of the physics department needs to hire a third receptionist. God forbid he be asked to share staff with the vice vice morning shift subdean of subtraction.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    21. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Reality of the Armed services changes you, usually for the better.

      Unless you come back home with PTSD from some third world shithole. Unless you consider PTSD "better".

      So either prison or cannon fodder is your view. Got it.

    22. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yet the US spends some $600 billion on the largest jobs program in the world, the United States Armed Forces. What do we have for a return on our investment on that?

      Professionally trained killers who are willing to give up their lives to protect you from the rest of the world.

    23. Re:we'll pay for prison by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

      It's pretty simple really. You can forcibly imprison people, but you can't force them to learn or become productive members of society.

    24. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Also, we may be getting our money's worth for the violent offenders.

      You'd have a point if the prisons were full of JUST violent criminals. The problem is, our prisons are full of stupid dopers and other low level addicts that haven't committed violent crimes yet are still in there for 5-10 years for having four blunts.

    25. Re:we'll pay for prison by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1, Interesting

      But ....
      You are aware that the USA has one of the highest amounts of imprissioned people per capita on the world? And besides Haiti and Somalia the highest crime rate. Most certainly the highest crime rate in the 'civilizes' world. Which raises the question if the USA actually belong to the civilized world.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    26. Re:we'll pay for prison by cheesybagel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A lot of people in US jails are in for drug related offenses. The US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world and there is no excuse for that.

    27. Re:we'll pay for prison by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      Most inmates aren't murders they are drug dealers, users, and thieves. $80k/yr for 5-10 years to keep someone from stealing a $30k-$60k car sounds like a lot of money to me. It really all comes down to which crimes are worth $80k/yr and which might be handled better in a different way.

    28. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Professionally trained killers who are willing to give up their lives to protect you from the rest of the world.

      The way things have gone lately, it's more like the rest of the world needs protected from our professional trained killers. Some perspective for you. Then we wonder why the rest of the world hates the US? Maybe if we stopped sending troops all over the fucking place to kill people who never did a damn thing to anyone in the US.

      Every bomb we drop somewhere in the world..another angry terrorist is created.

      Tell me, are we actually any safer than we were 25 years ago?
      We're not? What do you mean all of those billions of dollars spent in Afghanistan and Iraq accomplished nothing? Nevermind the the thousands of American soldiers who died for pretty much nothing. They weren't defending our freedom, they were defending special interests.

      Captcha: hoodwinked

    29. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A 1978 documentary, href="http://amzn.to/2sAK1ft">Scared Straight!, had a group of juvenile delinquents meet harden convicts who scared the crap out of them to convince that a life of crime doesn't pay. Such an experience for the graduating class of Harvard might convince future Wall Street traders and politicians to be more ethical in their dealings.

      Why? They are not at any measurable risk of going to prison - prison is for the poor or middle class.

    30. Re:we'll pay for prison by DickBreath · · Score: 0

      Are you suggesting that we should just educate people for FREE?

      That would be socialism!

      The next thing you will be telling me that police, prisons and fire departments shouldn't be run for profit. That natural resources aren't supposed to be sold to be strip mined for profit. And that people shouldn't have to pay for clean water. And do you think that clean air just grows on trees?

      The goal of the education system is to pigeon hole students into one of two tracks. You either are destined to occupy the for profit prisons, because vacant cells are not earning revenue, and thus decrease shareholder value; or you are destined to be a worker drone paying taxes to fund the for profit prisons.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    31. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's pretty simple really. You can forcibly imprison people, but you can't force them to learn or become productive members of society.

      The armed forces have been doing just that...for ever.

    32. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Why? They are not at any measurable risk of going to prison - prison is for the poor or middle class.

      Call it sensitivity training then.

    33. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's been estimated that we've spent around $13 ~ 14 million an hour on the "war on terror". So roughly, 4464 days. 9/11 was 5747 days ago.

    34. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ya know, I expect that if these people currently in prison actually went into the armed services, their chances of committing crime and ending up in prison would been cut dramatically.

      The light of the US forces already have had serious problems with their soldiers going on murder sprees on civvies both in Iraq and in Afghanistan, without sending people who actually didn't have an established record of not being able to control themselves.

      Yeah, these instances seems to be relatively isolated, but now you're proposing to "open the cages", as it were. Really?

      What could possibly go wrong?
       

    35. Re:we'll pay for prison by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 1

      American style capitalism says everything gets cheaper, better, more efficient through privatization.

      Except when it doesn't.

      Maybe it time you shook off your irrational fear of "socialism" and let the government take care of a few things that make sense to be handled by the government.

    36. Re:we'll pay for prison by Shimbo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Are they suggesting that Harvard students should be housed in California prisons?

      That wouldn't be a bad idea. A 1978 documentary, Scared Straight!, had a group of juvenile delinquents meet harden convicts who scared the crap out of them to convince that a life of crime doesn't pay.

      Unfortunately "Scared Straight!" is a textbook case of an idea that sounds good in theory and makes good TV but when you do do proper controlled trials you discover that it is worse than useless: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

    37. Re:we'll pay for prison by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      You probably mean to say "we'll pay to put people in prison, but we won't actually PUNISH them", right?

      Because $75,000 is *not* what it costs for an individual to live in a cement cell in the ground, get served shitty food, and work on a chain gang 365 days a year.

      --
      -Styopa
    38. Re:we'll pay for prison by Ichijo · · Score: 1

      If released, how likely is a homicide convict likely to repeat?

      If we cared about that, our prisons would look more like mental health facilities and we would give people an incentive to rehabilitate quickly by releasing them as soon as they're better instead of releasing them unconditionally when their time is up.

      No, our justice system is more about revenge than anything else.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    39. Re:we'll pay for prison by Koby77 · · Score: 1

      I agree that the war on drugs is a total waste of time, money, effort, and humanity. You're absolutely right that the drug offender part of the prison system is worthless. I'm only considering my alternative cost for violent crooks.

    40. Re:we'll pay for prison by wisnoskij · · Score: 0

      Everyone (rounding up form 99%), in american jail got their by pleading down from a bigger offence. Those people serving 5 for a crack rock in their pocket were picked up for jumping some kids for their wallets.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    41. Re:we'll pay for prison by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      What other metric would you use to pay for those prisons? Customer satisfaction?

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    42. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      we'll pay to put CRIMINALS in prison, and people can pay their own way to get educated.

    43. Re:we'll pay for prison by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Practically a bargain.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    44. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is Socialist Venezuela doing these days?

    45. Re:we'll pay for prison by sunderland56 · · Score: 2

      The US does pay for educating people through secondary school.

      Well over half of prison inmates did not successfully compete their free, government-funded education.

    46. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You paint with a very broad brush, however I agree that there are areas I won't go in the USA. Areas of our major cities are worse than many 3rd world countries when it comes to gang violence and crime. Unfortunately the Republicans are too busy fighting themselves and blocking the real reforms Democrats want to do to fix these issues.

    47. Re:we'll pay for prison by OhPlz · · Score: 1

      Hotels do the same thing!

    48. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yep. But the customer is us. Base fees on recidivism.

    49. Re:we'll pay for prison by arth1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What other metric would you use to pay for those prisons? Customer satisfaction?

      How about recidivism rates? Pay a bonus for every prisoner that's released from a prison, every year until they are arrested again or die, whichever comes first.
      That would add an incentive for rehabilitation.

    50. Re:we'll pay for prison by SeattleLawGuy · · Score: 1

      If released, how likely is a homicide convict likely to repeat? How much would you be willing to pay to prevent a loved-one from being added to the victim list? $80k seems like a small price to pay if it would prevent another murder.

      Any amount sounds like a small amount to pay in theory, but they add up rapidly in fact. Also, $80K might save more lives used another way. Most serious policy decisions either impact the lives or the quality of life of many people.

      It's also not just about how likely someone is to reoffend--it's also about punishment (from the "retributivist" side) and about deterrence (which is a part of the "consequentialist" side that also includes the recidivism factor you're identifying.)

      --
      Real lawyers write in C++
    51. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We pay a lot for education but what are we getting for the dollars?

      In 39 states, a highly paid football or basketball coach.

      The problem is not the funding. Funding has been going through the roof for 50 years.

      That explains the leaks.

      1. how about finding other ways to punish besides prison

      But that's what the people of California voted for.

      2. how about decriminalizing drugs, prostitution and gambling.

      Won't help, most people in California's prisons are in prison for other things.

      keep prison for rapists and murders and thieves

      Yes, there's a lot of rape, murder, and theft in California's prisons, that's part of why the Federal government found against them when the California corrections system was sued.

    52. Re:we'll pay for prison by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 2

      American style capitalism says everything gets cheaper, better, more efficient through privatization. ... Except when it doesn't.

      Aside from the potential for competition, that assumes a that the buyers are somewhat sensitive to changes in price. Under normal circumstances that would be a safe assumption, but when the buyer is the government, and spending other people's money, there is very little price sensitivity on the buyer's side to keep prices in check. The seller, of course, is going to charge whatever they can get away with, and the government has no real incentive to bargain or look for cheaper solutions. The inevitable outcome is obvious, and not in any sense a failing of capitalism.

      --
      "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
    53. Re:we'll pay for prison by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or just make them get law degrees. Harvard has nearly a 0% recidivism rate; people who go to Harvard almost never go back. :-)

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    54. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      25 years ago the USA just finished the limited action that liberated Kuwait from Iraqi invasion. Bush Sr. was smart, and got the fuck out once the objective was accomplished. Bush Jr., not so much. Obama used new technology more strategically and reduced US causalities immensely. Trump is a just flamboyant frat boy with dementia.

    55. Re:we'll pay for prison by HornWumpus · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Democrats run all the places you wouldn't go. All of them and have run them for decades.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    56. Re:we'll pay for prison by TimothyHollins · · Score: 4, Funny

      So...Rob a Bank, get a free education?

      In fall 2016, some 20.5 million students are expected to attend American colleges and universities

      This is one trillion five hundred billion dollars.

      Fuck You.

      I don't want to interrupt your delightful exposition, but as far as I can tell the proposal for tax-funded college doesn't necessarily require that we send everyone to Harvard.

      In fact, if I may be so bold, I would tentatively suggest that it could be a tad tricky to fit 20.5 million students into Harvard, as it's only 85 ha (344 km^2) in size.
      Looking into it, even if we assume that we can squeeze 4 students in per square meter (a proposal that is sure to deflate any hopes of reducing the number of Title IX charges this year), we're still 19.12 million students short!
      We would need to stack our students 15 stories high, and that doesn't even take into account how we're gonna keep them standing still the entire semester, cause with entropy this thing will rapidly become un-manageable, and good luck keeping your customer satisfaction ratings up then! You can already expect a solid one-star ratings drop from the students the staff will have to park their cars on.

      However, I'm sure you have already considered this before enlightening us all with your sparkling wit. So, with great anticipation and rock-hard nipples, I await your solution.

      Thank you.

    57. Re:we'll pay for prison by Cipheron · · Score: 1

      Another factor is that some people are better at estimating risk vs reward than others. When given tests, convicts as a whole are really bad at this. Which shouldn't be surprising in the least. Smarter criminals convince the dumb ones to take all the risks, because the dumb ones are bad at assessing risk vs reward.

      For the dumb kids you have to make it a clear yes/no thing: tell them that if you commit crime you WILL go to prison. Don't tell the idiots "maybe", because they're dumb enough to believe they'll get away with it.

    58. Re:we'll pay for prison by queazocotal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If more harvard students went to prison, on the other hand, you can guarantee treatment of prisoners would improve.

    59. Re:we'll pay for prison by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

      well, they'd get a taste of the diversity that the school constantly crows about.

    60. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really. It's actually pretty hard to end-up in jail for a drug-related crime between plea bargaining, deferred prosecution/adjudication, probation, and house arrest. In many states, like here in NY, you can almost always have the charge is dropped entirely with no public record of the offense if you don't get into trouble during the adjournment period which is usually six months. My old roommate had nine arrests for drug possession, and because none were within his adjournment period or probation he got no jail time. With his tenth arrest, he got unlucky since it was for over a pound of marijuana and within about twenty feet of an elementary school. He got 30 days for that one. You actually have to try pretty hard these days to actually get jail time for possession.

    61. Re:we'll pay for prison by queazocotal · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or pleading up from actually being innocent.

    62. Re:we'll pay for prison by Cipheron · · Score: 2

      Because the incentive is to keep the prison full, which costs more taxpayers money, and some companies involved have been found to pay kickbacks to judges who hand out harsh sentences.

    63. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I won't pay. Send them back to where they came from, one way bus ride.

      Law breakers need to pay for their crime. Do the crime, do the time.

    64. Re:we'll pay for prison by Cipheron · · Score: 1

      We'll get back a number of Colonel David H. Hackworth's and a number of Timothy McVeigh's ...

    65. Re:we'll pay for prison by Cipheron · · Score: 1

      The most expensive colleges don't spend that money on staff, they spend it on advertising. the cheap colleges are the ones with most % of money spent on staff.

    66. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More likely that all residents of the California prison system are sent to learn new tricks in Harvard. The student population will appreciate it, as they get to do more of the community service they enjoyed before getting in by guiding the prisoner groups to a better life in campus area.

    67. Re:we'll pay for prison by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      We need better educated criminals.

    68. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If more harvard students went to prison, on the other hand, you can guarantee treatment of prisoners would improve.

      Don't need that, this is California we are talking about. Treatment of prisoners will remain the same. All extra money will go to the prison guards and prison doctors. http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Budget/

    69. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anna+Merikin · · Score: 1

      Supporting each of approximately 8,000 homeless persons in San Francisco costs about $30,000 or $250 million total; presumably other cities' costs are similar. (Source: homeless censuses and San Francisco budgetary estimates, not including emergency medical services.)

      Either government human services are not cheap -- or Harvard is.

    70. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah? Shall we start a laundry list of things totally fucked up about human 'civilization' (using the term as loosely as a $5 whore)?
      We discriminate against and kill people because of their religion, national origin, and skin color.
      We believe in idiotic bullshit like RELIGION, for ANY REASON AT ALL.
      We fuck other humans over to make more MONEY.
      We fuck over the PLANET because it's more PROFITABLE than taking care of it properly.
      We elect the most fucktarded unqualified jackasses imaginable based on NO FACTS AT ALL, just the LIES they tell us.
      We know on an intellectual level that eating shit food and not exercising will make us fat, weak, slow, and diseased, YET WE DO IT ANYWAY BECAUSE WE'RE STUPID.
      We don't like the 'aesthetics' of homeless people being around, but rather than HELP THEM get out of the hole they're in, WE HARASS, ARREST, and SHIP THEM SOMEWHERE ELSE like so much trash.
      We claim to be 'civilized' and 'sentient' yet we prey on our own species like brainless animals.
      We claim to be 'civilized' and 'sentient' yet we USE WOMEN AND YOUNG GIRLS AS SEX SLAVES because WE CAN and it makes MONEY.

      Shall I go on? I could go on ALL MOTHERFUCKING DAY with this.

      On my worst day if you handed me the Red Button that blows up the whole fucking PLANET, I'd do it.

    71. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about Red Asphalt?

    72. Re:we'll pay for prison by Deadstick · · Score: 1

      Recidivism rate, after discharge.

    73. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That made me bark out laughing at a most inappropriate time. I look damn silly with with a strand of Fettucini hanging from one nostril.

    74. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Correct that to "this STATE has its priorities backwards."

    75. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only if all the money is paid back the moment a prisoner returns to any prison. Due in full at time of that prisoner's sentencing.

    76. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Getting tough is easier than getting smart when it comes to getting votes.

      I'm sure most people thought Minister Fudge in Harry Potter was just too over the top to be believable. Then we got our own Minister Fudge. He too appears to believe that being seen as doing something is far more important than doing the right thing.

      I'm not for legalizing drugs, though why cannabis can't be prescribed in all 50 states is beyond me. Its far safer than the crap they do prescribe. I'm also not for throwing people in jail when they might be slightly productive out of it, or at least cost less.

      Personally I'd let people do work if they wanted to in jail of the type they are suited to. You couldn't use the results of the work to reduce their sentences much, though it would be good behavior. Also, why not have jail teach them a marketable skill? Perhaps they could work some hours doing a task they could do in trade for accredited hours of education?

      I'm also not for prisons being privately run. I simply don't trust it. A prison should not be a profit center.

      Hell, have them do fact checking for stories on the internet. Crowd source it, so you can reject errors.

      I'd find it ironic if our most reputable source of news were felons...

      They got to be better than Minister Fudge.

    77. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US armed forces DO NOT want criminals and thugs in their ranks. DO. NOT. WANT.

      At all.

      Those days when a judge could send you straight from the courthouse to boot camp are over. Nowadays you have to worry about gang members clicking up in the barracks and undermining basic military discipline. Same basic problem pro sports teams have, only on a different scale.

    78. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well shit, we should have implemented this plan prior to 1854 since we didn't know anything about entropy back then.

    79. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      PS: No one was scared by your DMCA takedowns...

      Read and weep: https://www.kickingthebitbucket.com/2017/06/06/the-slashdot-asshats-who-stole-my-pictures/

    80. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. I'm going to read your own website to back up your claims. No one stole your pictures, you absurd mockery of a primate. No one was angry, no one was retaliating.

      Good lord you must be a lonely virgin. We were all laughing at you. We're laughing at your impotent fury, we're laughing at your grandiose claims, we're laughing at the fact that you're so easy to provoke, we're laughing at your mental gymnastics to avoid admitting that you're a failure.

      You fail at everything. You failed at your career. You failed with your website. You failed with your revenue streams.

      "I’m once again enjoying the calmness that comes from scaring off the asshats with my awesome powers as a content creator. "

      There is something major wrong with your personality. What it is I can only guess at. But someone as damaged as you comes along once a decade. The last person that is close to your level of sickness was Tim Rue in the Amiga world.

      I am something of an anthropologist and amateur psychologist. I am *fascinated* by the train wreck of your life, and the twists and turns of your vivid imagination. I'm really at a loss to understand where and how your personality came into being.

      I can only guess there was some tremendous pain and betrayal in your early childhood that made you this way. I think no one ever raised you properly and that you are the victim of bad parenting and incompetent surroundings.

      And it's morbidly fascinating. Your brain is like an insect-chewed corpse. You know it'll never come back to life but how did it get that way? Who killed it? What kind of bugs are on there?

      I think your life could serve as a warning to others, so that they can avoid becoming an obese middle-aged man who thinks people care about his stupid picture.

    81. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      No one stole your pictures, you absurd mockery of a primate. No one was angry, no one was retaliating.

      Where's criemer, cremier and creinner?

    82. Re: we'll pay for prison by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Umm... We do pay to educate people. I'm not sure it is working, given your post.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    83. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does that have to do with anything? We had a great laugh at you. Even your fat ass was laughing for weeks! You see retaliation and anger everywhere, where normal people see nothing. No picture was "stolen". Copied, for sure! If your fat stupid ass was too ADHD to use robots.txt to prevent your shitty picture from being cached... How is that our fault?

      This old video will best explain how we see you.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Except those people took off their costumes after.... You're stuck being creimer. Forever. The good news is no one else has to be you.

      Here's an explanation:

      https://youtu.be/1RGohIKxc9M?t...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    84. Re:we'll pay for prison by irving47 · · Score: 1

      Despite TV and movies, California is a poor representation of this nation.

      --
      I had a sucky sig.
    85. Re:we'll pay for prison by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      So...Rob a Bank, get a free education?

      I think the idea is to educate people before they rob the bank. If they have other options, then bank robbery doesn't look like such a good idea.

    86. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      cdreimer was me... I don't know who struck first, cdreimer or criemer, but I know you guys were a lot funnier than me! I have to admit this creimer guy is amazing. His capacity for endless deflections, his complete inability for self-criticism, his boundless energy applied to pointless and futile activities, his rich imagination.

      If there are other universes, I could only hope there's a universe where all this energy is used for something useful.

    87. Re:we'll pay for prison by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      if these people currently in prison actually went into the armed services, their chances of committing crime and ending up in prison would been cut dramatically.

      I don't think so. In the military, being late for work is a crime. People that can't follow rules tend to do very poorly. When I was a Marine, our 120 man infantry company typically had about 5 guys in the brig. That is way higher than the civilian rate.

    88. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is this +5 insightful? It's fucking stupid. We pay to keep people in prison because they're fucking criminals who need to be kept out of society for everybody else's sake.

    89. Re:we'll pay for prison by gweihir · · Score: 2

      I don't think so. Unless they are massively stupid, Wall Street traders and politicians do not get sent to prison.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    90. Re:we'll pay for prison by gweihir · · Score: 1

      No, our justice system is more about revenge than anything else.

      Indeed. That is also why it has no positive effect in crime.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    91. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He definitely is something else. Very monotonous though - after a couple of weeks of the same stories I just started blocking his posts.

    92. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True story

    93. Re: we'll pay for prison by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      How is Socialist Venezuela doing these days?

      Free markets work better than socialism for distributing groceries.

      Monopsony markets do NOT work better than socialism for running prisons.

      Back in the 1980s, there was a big push for privatized prisons. I was a supporter, because it seemed like a good idea to use the profit motive to drive reform. But it has NOT worked, and private prisons have a dismal record. Since I believe in evidence based reasoning, I no longer support private prisons. They were a mistake.

    94. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does that makes Harvard alumni that return recidivists? Is that why Harvard's endowment fund is so large - civil asset forfeiture at the college level? And here I thought it was charitable giving.

    95. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish I had your strength. Maybe I should go look for that feature. In all my years on Slash, I've never blocked a user, not even Khyber, who I think is malignant. He's legit DSM-V mentally ill. He needs real help.

      creimer is crazy, but in a fun way. I don't know how he keeps a job, or how his co-workers see him, but to me he's as fun as fart videos. Farts are also monotonous, but always funny!

      creimer is the fart video of slashdot users.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      I hear that background music in my head every time I read a creimer post. I need to laugh, especially tonight when Obama was eating just down my street.

    96. Re:we'll pay for prison by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Because $75,000 is *not* what it costs for an individual to live in a cement cell in the ground, get served shitty food, and work on a chain gang 365 days a year.

      Indeed. When you include the legal expenses for court challenges, medical expenses, and the cost of the higher recidivism rates, that would cost WAY more than $75k.

    97. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dude that's not even close. I'm going to guess there is a lot more - i just copied from the first page of search results. In fact, I'm going to guess someone wrote a python script to just publish it to every image site that exists. they're labeled fat loser, fat fuck, and similar, in different languages. this is hilarious. I love that this moron spends so much time writing about this and trying to take them down. I wonder why? It's from his own site that he had publicly available to everyone. I guess you can't explain stupid - just have a good laugh and move on.

      https://postimg.org/image/pltv...
      http://lookpic.com/O/i2/514/kw...
      http://img.pixady.com/2017/06/...
      https://i.imgsafe.org/7768dc14...
      http://www.imageupload.co.uk/i...
      http://savepic.ru/14295375.jpg
      https://s8.hostingkartinok.com...
      http://i96.fastpic.ru/big/2017...

    98. Re:we'll pay for prison by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      A prison should be a place we want never to use, but are sometimes forced to, because in some cases there is no better solution. Every prisoner should be a heavy burden on the government, proportional to his time incarcerated, to disincentivize excessive punishment. (Crime victims and moral panic already provide a heavy incentive in the other direction.)

      What metric should we use to judge the justice system? How about how much they can reduce crime, and how few people they need to lock up.

    99. Re:we'll pay for prison by beelsebob · · Score: 1

      No, he's suggesting that California's prisons wouldn't be filled with people costing us $75,000 a year if we had only spent $10,000 a year giving them a better education when they were 10, and $10,000 a year making sure that they had a bed, clothes that fit, food on the table, and a stable enough environment to take advantage of said education.

    100. Re:we'll pay for prison by beelsebob · · Score: 1

      The thing that doesn't add up is the salaries, and the size of the administration departments at said collages. In the last 30 years the size of admin departments has increased 10 fold relative to academic staff, and the salaries have increased at a 10 times greater rate than the salaries of the academic staff.

    101. Re:we'll pay for prison by ooloorie · · Score: 2

      We'll pay to put people in prison, yet we won't pay to educate people. Maybe it's just me, but perhaps, just perhaps this nation has its priorities backwards.

      No, it's not just you: plenty of people hold such stupid beliefs and make such trite statements.

      Fact is that the US spends massively on education. Our per pupil spending is among the highest in the world. Yet, there is little relationship between spending and student performance/outcomes.

      Spending insane amounts of money on incarceration in California doesn't mean that education spending should be raised, it means that prisoners should be incarcerated more cheaply.

    102. Re:we'll pay for prison by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Then why is it that most college graduates in this country are in debt up to their earballs in student loans?

      When government subsidizes college, colleges just increase costs and raise prices. That is, what college costs is always the sum total of what the market will bear plus what the government gives in subsidies.

    103. Re:we'll pay for prison by Hylandr · · Score: 1

      Well the logical *American* thing to do would be to raise the cost of education more.

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    104. Re:we'll pay for prison by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      There's been lots of further research on that idea since Scared Straight. The conclusion from extensive research, rather than something someone saw on TV, is that it doesn't work, and in many cases makes things worse rather than better.

      Unfortunately the damn meme has caught, and despite all the studies there are still endless programmes based on an idea that doesn't actually work.

    105. Re:we'll pay for prison by guacamole · · Score: 1

      A Pell Grant will probably cover all tuition, fees and textbooks at a community college.

    106. Re:we'll pay for prison by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      An excess of them. The US military is vastly bloated - it's simply huge, and expensive. The US spends three times more than Russia and China combined. It's certainly very nice to have enough firepower to take on the entire world at once, but is it really the best use of taxpayer money? If the military budget were cut in half it would instantly eliminate the spending deceit and with a lot left over, and the US would still be a military superpower.

    107. Re:we'll pay for prison by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Like many countries, the US justice system is motivated largely by a very basic instinct: The desire for collective revenge. People like to dress is up as 'justice' to make it seem noble, but it is not. It's the natural human desire to see bad people made to suffer - a lot. Deterrence is a nice excuse, but it really is just an excuse.

      The ACLU had to take legal action in some states to force prisons to install aid conditioning because prisoners were routinely being hospitalised for heat stroke - nothing had been done, because prison administrators, politicians and the public were all very happy to know that prisoners were experiencing conditions that were in effect a form of torture.

    108. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget to have this one taken down. I snapped it at walmart in the $5 shitty candy section, it was labeled "stupid" in comic sans.

      http://spotmebro.com/spotmebro...

      snickers: 488 calories /100g (lots of fat)
      fiber 1 bar: 350 calories /100g (lots of fat)
      fat-free feta: 80 calories /100g (all protein)
      egg beaters: 54 calories /100g (all protein)
      carrot: 35 calories /100g (no fat)
      tomatillo: 32 calories /100g (no fat)
      jello: 10 calories /100g (all protein)

    109. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It also gets you sweet lobbying kickbacks from the private prison system.

      Meh, funneling tax money into education should have just as much lobbying kickbacks in it.
      The problem is that people who like education doesn't aren't as easily swayed by empty promises as the people who like to be "tough on crime".

    110. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Re prisons
      1. how about finding other ways to punish besides prison
      2. how about decriminalizing drugs, prostitution and gambling.

      Why the focus on punishment?
      Punishment by itself is completely pointless. It is only a tool to make prisons work as a deterrent.
      The primary focuses of prison should be to act as a deterrent to prevent other criminals and to rehabilitate to make sure the subject doesn't commit crimes again.

      Ideally the deterring part shouldn't be what keeps people from committing crimes, society should have other methods to make sure people doesn't want to be criminals.
      One thing that criminals has in common is that they typically thinks that they will get away with it. That means that the deterring factor of prisons is largely ineffective. A harsh punishment doesn't apply if you don't get caught.

    111. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that was me - I'm the guy who likes $3k bottles of wine. it was a korn shell actually. about 20 loooong lines of korn shell. but... I wrote it while in the bathtub - I am not even kidding here. It just did a google search on free image hosting and tried to submit it everywhere there was a browse button and no security check stuff. some succeeded, some failed. No stats, because I didn't want to get pruny.

      Bathtub Script!! and then I washed my balls.

    112. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And hospitals are full of sick people. What's the causal link?

    113. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, lets fund the students, and let the prisoners pay for their prison time. Prisoners without money could get prisoner's loans, and struggle to pay them down for many years later. Unless they fail to pay, in which case we'd be forced to kick them out. "Pay up, or no cell-time for you!"

    114. Re:we'll pay for prison by ooloorie · · Score: 2

      Well, the US already spends more than $11000 on average per elementary school student, and more than $12000 on average per secondary school student, more than all but a handful of other nations. The US also has one of the largest percentage of college/university educated adults in the world. US teachers are paid significantly more than OECD average. Some of the students on which we spend the most (inner cities, native Americans) have some of the worst outcomes.

    115. Re:we'll pay for prison by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      In comparison to other nations, we are spending massively on both education and prisons. And the reasons have little to do with public policy, and far more with the endorsements of public sector unions for politicians.

    116. Re:we'll pay for prison by RuffMasterD · · Score: 1

      I think the point is that it is cheaper to educate these people once for three or four years so they can get decent jobs and make a positive contribution to society, than it is to incarcerate them repeatedly for the rest of their lives.

      People who have a low quality of life don't have much to lose by committing crimes (low opportunity cost). They either succeed with the crime and improve their shitty quality of life a little, or they get caught and given free accommodation, food, clothing, utilities, etc.

      But if we give these people an education, then they can get a decent job, buy a car, find a partner, get a mortgage, and suddenly they feel like they have something to lose if they were incarcerated for a crime (high opportunity cost). It's the carrot approach that keeps the middle class in check.

      Of course some people are a hopeless cause, so we keep running prisons as a last resort for such people, but such a scheme might just end up being cheaper in the long run.

      --
      Human Rights, Article 12: Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence
    117. Re:we'll pay for prison by gtall · · Score: 1

      And if you are Jeff Sessions, it beats learning something new over what he thought he learned during the Reagan years.

      There is a push among conservatives and liberals at the local level to reduce prison sentences with the understanding they are defeating any attempts at correcting bad behavior. This effort has been going on for several years and states have started to respond. So Sessions decided it would be fun to attempt to through a monkey wrench into that effort. I doubt it will effect the states, only federal prosecutions.

    118. Re:we'll pay for prison by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      I think the point is that it is cheaper to educate these people once for three or four years so they can get decent jobs and make a positive contribution to society, than it is to incarcerate them repeatedly for the rest of their lives.

      And we are already spending massive amounts of money to "educate these people"; spending more isn't going to educate them any better.

      A genetic predisposition for aggression or drug use, bad parenting, and low IQ simply cannot be fixed through spending more money on education.

    119. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On what level? There are areas in certain Texas cities I wouldn't dare set foot in, areas where the mayor or city council might be Democrats but at the county and state level everything is run by Republicans who cut funding for any social programs every chance they get.

    120. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It clearly doesn't HAVE to cost that much to imprison somebody for a year, does it.
      And you're suggesting that these scumbags can be "educated" just because YOU want to believe that they can? Who stopped them from being "educated" in the first place? Was it "society"? How did "society" know to keep these particular people 'down' and 'stop' them from getting an education?

      You can easily keep somebody incarcerated for around $10,000 a year, tops, AND make them work to pay for their keep.

      How about we split the country into two parts - nutcases like you who feel sorry for criminals can have your insane laws and sentencing policies, and the other 99% of us can have ours - which part of the country do you think ALL of the criminals would immediately move to? YOUR part.

    121. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends on who the next victim might be. Not all people are worth it.

    122. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you got angry, and you retaliated. Got it.

    123. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      So you got angry, and you retaliated. Got it.

      Nope. This is business. I'm exercising my personality rights.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights

    124. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's just a stupid statement. Nobody controls all the good places or all the bad places, people make their own barriers by imagining others to be better or worse than they are.

      The USA needs to take a step back when upset at something and ask "Why would a rational, reasonable person act that way?" Once people develop some empathy skills, we can stop fighting each other and work as a nation again.

      That is why Trump won't make America great again. He's busy making American fight American. In all of the Presidents I've had the pleasure of seeing in office, none has managed to disillusion and sideline my interests as well as Trump has. He's turning my nation into a place where people hate people, thought about an issue is optional before action, and it is cool to have a strong stance on a subject which can't be defended because it is 100% based on non-fact supported opinion.

      Assuming Trump is a reasonable rational person, the primary reason he's in office is to make money. He's leased out his own personal property to the US government at rates higher than those he offered in the private sector, when his property was empty. As long as he muddles the thinking of people, he will get indecision and a longer run at making the most money he's made in the last 10 years.

    125. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " to keep one's image and likeness from being commercially exploited without permission or contractual compensation"

      You are sick in the head. An MRI should find the massive tumor causing you think that anyone is "exploiting" your fat ass pictures *commercially*.

      You are exercising your right to be a public spectacle.

    126. Re:we'll pay for prison by Gilgaron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think the military is currently used as a 'right-wing friendly' make-work program. You have the poor employed and trained as soldiers, the middle class as scientists and engineers to make the equipment, and the upper class running the industrial complex. Maybe a CCC style program could replace it but I'm not sure that simply cutting the military budget in half would necessarily solve more problems than it would cause with how things stand.

    127. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last week it was the DMCA. Then it was Slashdot's terms of service. Now it's something else.

      Why don't you stop putting up pictures of yourself if they're so valuable?

      Don't worry, we'll find what's wrong with you.

      http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/14/article-2086306-0F73C53600000578-537_468x328.jpg

      If that can fit...

      captcha: butter

    128. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      " to keep one's image and likeness from being commercially exploited without permission or contractual compensation"

      You're looking at the wrong part. The relevant part is, "the right to privacy, or the right to be left alone and not have one's personality represented publicly without permission."

      Opening user accounts in variations of my name to post comments as I would post them and re-posting my pictures on unauthorized image websites is asking for trouble.

    129. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Why don't you stop putting up pictures of yourself if they're so valuable?

      I've been proactively restricting the usage of my pictures and issued a dozen DMCA takedown notices since this weekend.

    130. Re:we'll pay for prison by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      I didn't know Republicans were in charge of Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, DC, St. Louis, and Oakland.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    131. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://www.bpdcentral.com/narcissistic-disorder/hallmarks-of-npd/

    132. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      https://www.bpdcentral.com/narcissistic-disorder/hallmarks-of-npd/

      You're confusing me with Trump. The term you're looking for is "personal branding."

      Personal branding is essentially the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual, group, or organization.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_branding

    133. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others"

      You refuse to recognize our need to laugh at you.

      "Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)"

      I think that speaks for itself.

      "Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations"

      Bis.

      "Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends"

      You're always gloating about the "ad revenue" you get from us.

      "Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her"

      You seriously don't see that?

      "Requires excessive admiration"

      You're always shit-posing here. Why?

      "Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes"

      Yup.

      "Believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)"

      What is your website about if not that?

      "Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love"

      Yes, tell us again how you plan to live to 110 with your body and your revenue? And you think you have a "personal brand".

    134. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We'll pay to put people in prison, yet we won't pay to educate people. ...

      In a police state, that's exactly how it should be.

    135. Re:we'll pay for prison by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      You refuse to recognize our need to laugh at you.

      I don't have a problem with you laughing me. I laugh at myself all the time. What I won't tolerate is the misappropriation of my name and image. Your need to laugh at me doesn't trump my legal rights to protect my name and image.

    136. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But how much of that money makes it to the end point? How much disappears into locked in contracts?

    137. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, yes, but it's a Catch 22 situation. A true Narcissist wouldn't admit to it.

    138. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually, a publicly available image was linked to. in addition, you were not impersonated - you were made fun of by clearly fake accounts. ask the fake donald trump and the fake tim cook. no one was asking for trouble - they just made fun of you more. the reason your stuff got taken down is because no one can be bothered to fight a takedown. it's funnier to keep creating new accounts and watch the fat hamster run in the wheel. until everyone got bored with it. after you did your shpiel with asking slashdot to take down cdreimer, the whole point of the other 3 was to have you do it more. then people moved on to having you do that with your fat photo. how's that going by the way - you done taking down all those links? I can add some more for you - I'm due for a another bath tomorrow. jesus what a goofy cartoon you are.

    139. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " I laugh at myself all the time."

      How do you get any work done? ... oh.

    140. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A public school cannot take 3 million $$ in public tax money and give a bribe.. whoops, I meant a contribution to the politician that has input on the schools budget.
      A public school cannot use ANY money to pay off, I mean support, politicians.

      HOWEVER, a private prison that gets 100% of it's money from tax payers CAN donate as many millions $$ of public money that they want to the very people who decide the budget.

      THAT is the problem.

    141. Re:we'll pay for prison by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Needs a better methodology. How about we simple fence off a ghost town, give the prisoners some form of script for currency, guard the perimeter and let them figure the rest out?

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    142. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey douche. The whole game was having you take down accounts. You took down 4. We can always create more accounts - but it does get boring after 4. Now we're having you take down pictures. Then we'll come up with another game for you to play. Dance clown.

      Get it now? Of course you don't. There is not a person on here that takes a thing you say seriously. Dumb trailer trash walks into an IBM board meeting and starts talking. It's entertaining for them, but there is nothing he can say to be taken seriously. That's you on slashdot.

    143. Re:we'll pay for prison by Ichijo · · Score: 1

      And you can be sure that many of those prisoners learned from the experience that it's acceptable to make others suffer.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    144. Re: we'll pay for prison by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      maybe they should just go to harvard and bypass prison.

    145. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      0% recidivism if they die in prison.

    146. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      God damn you retarded kids need to get a life: get a job, a girlfriend or boyfriend as you prefer, and a pet to get your asses off the computer.

    147. Re:we'll pay for prison by PJ6 · · Score: 1

      Are they suggesting that Harvard students should be housed in California prisons?

      That wouldn't be a bad idea. A 1978 documentary, Scared Straight!, had a group of juvenile delinquents meet harden convicts who scared the crap out of them to convince that a life of crime doesn't pay. Such an experience for the graduating class of Harvard might convince future Wall Street traders and politicians to be more ethical in their dealings.

      Aside from a few very rare exceptions, that class of people doesn't go to jail even for really huge crimes. If you've been awake at all for the last 35 years you'd know this.

    148. Re:we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your image is all over the internet now, under the filename fatloser.jpg, and a lot of it appears to be coming up on russian hosting sites. have fun "protecting it" -most people would want to hide if they looked like that, from shame of how low they sank. as far as whether it's legal or not to create accounts making fun of you or spread an image you made available - yes, it is - and no, your opinion is wrong, nor does it count.

      have you noticed no one fights your takedown notices? the game we had you playing was issuing notices after you did the first one for cdreimer. you're Still playing champ.. Once you get the links posted down, we'll send you the new ones. I gotta warn you though, the next batch had a little photoshop work done. you'll love it

    149. Re: we'll pay for prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems from the conversations these kids are in the 40s and making about 200k. You?

    150. Re:we'll pay for prison by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      The GP was clearly talking about major cities, which your link doesn't refute. Chicago, Detroit, and most every other major crime ridden city has been Democratically controlled for decades. Meme that.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    151. Re:we'll pay for prison by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      What did we do before AC? I grew up in a house w/o any...maybe I should have called the ACLU.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    152. Re:we'll pay for prison by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      It's pretty simple really. You can forcibly imprison people, but you can't force them to learn or become productive members of society.

      The armed forces have been doing just that...for ever.

      Oh bullshit. That hasn't been the case in your lifetime even.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    153. Re:we'll pay for prison by Ichijo · · Score: 1

      Before A/C, you opened all the windows to get a good breeze blowing through, and if you could get a good breeze and it wasn't too humid you could also use a wet rag to help cool you off.

      Do prisons get good breezes blowing through if you open all the windows?

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
  2. If only all of us would stop committing felonies by OrangeTide · · Score: 0

    Then maybe we could make college free for everyone.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  3. private prisons! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    america's answer!

    1. Re:private prisons! by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      For profit prisons. The shareholders' answer.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  4. Yea but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Future job prospects, especially in State Government or the Democratic party are much better!

  5. Privitization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    California should privatize its corrections system. I bet with the free market in charge, they could get the per-inmate costs down to a year at Fresno Community College.

    1. Re:Privitization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And attract new customers too!

    2. Re:Privitization by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      Surely there must already be some community college in California that is like being in prison?

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    3. Re:Privitization by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 1

      Yes. They could have "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" sales. People would be breaking down the doors to get in at such a bargain price.

  6. The obvious answer here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is to start sending prisoners to college. After all, no one there understands how to integrate into society and follow the rules either.

    Can you imagine how the Berkeley riots would have looked with a few hundred inmates involved as well?

  7. Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But if you go to Harvard - especially the law and business school - you can become the ruling elite, break laws, and make millions doing so with impunity.

    So, the most cost effective thing for society is to send these criminals to be among their own kind: send them to Harvard. They will fit right in!

  8. Huh? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    That's enough to cover the annual cost of attending Harvard University and still have plenty left over for pizza and beer Gov.

    What's beer gov?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Huh? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      How long have you been following politics that you still wonder whether they're drunk?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Huh? by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

      That's enough to cover the annual cost of attending Harvard University and still have plenty left over for pizza and beer Gov.

      What's beer gov?

      It's when you drink before voting. The US tried it last year, and look how great everything's turning out!

    3. Re:Huh? by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      It was your first election cycle?

      There hasn't been a major party candidate worth voting for in my lifetime. It's always vote against the worst one.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    4. Re:Huh? by dslauson · · Score: 1

      It's fermented grains infused with hops, gov.

  9. Focus on Education by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which is why focussing on education is so important. A lot of crime just goes away with education and opportunity.

  10. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

    If only all of us would stop committing felonies...

    If only we didn't turn everything that some legislator doesn't like into felonies...

  11. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by kurkosdr · · Score: 1

    Or California could stop trying to make prisons into luxury apartments that also provide top notch health care services. But noooo, that's not politically correct, and California can't do that.

  12. for half that money ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... the majority of the prison population would have never committed a crime to begin with.

  13. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ha! Great comment.

    According to TFA they are doing more early releases. What could possibly go wrong?

  14. UBI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Send them back into the world with 20% of the prison cost as UBI. It's enough for basic rent and food.

    1. Re:UBI by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      The reason they committed crimes is probably because they had ambition to do better for themselves than UBI can provide. Isn't one purpose of UBI to encourage people to go out and make more money doing whatever they have ambition to do?

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    2. Re: UBI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure they having no money so had to sell drugs is what got them in prison.

  15. this is a solution for millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they can't get a job or pay of student loans, so they should just commit a crime and then they can generate revenue when they go to jail

  16. Most of the money spent at college by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Funny

    goes to education. Most of the money spent at a private prison goes to the people running the prison. Our priorities are just fine, provided you run a private prison and/or own stock in one.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Most of the money spent at college by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PROTIP: The smart money is in anti-personnel munitions and the drones used to deliver them.

    2. Re:Most of the money spent at college by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Are you saying that the people running Harvard aren't paid?

    3. Re:Most of the money spent at college by kevmeister · · Score: 2

      Actually, as the article states, most of the money goes to prison guards and health care.

      What was missed is that the prison guards union is generally considered to be the most powerful political spender in the state. The get what they ask for very routinely. Their pay increases have regularly run way ahead of inflation. Clearly money well spent!

      --
      Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer, Retired
    4. Re:Most of the money spent at college by Cipheron · · Score: 0

      Less than 50% of Harvard's budget goes to salary. Salary isn't the main driver of cost in education.

    5. Re:Most of the money spent at college by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Speak for yourself, but you couldn't pay me enough to be a prison guard so long as there are other jobs going.
      Why shouldn't we pay them a fraction of a stockbrokers pay? On the other hand why are we paying those stockbrokers so much when it's so much easier to find someone to do that job and they don't need as much training?

    6. Re:Most of the money spent at college by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      The prison guard unions have funded ballot initiatives to lengthen sentences and send more people to prison. So it isn't just a matter of how much they are paid, but how many of them we need. California has way too many people in prison, and way too many prison guards.

      Also, the biggest problem with guard compensation is not salaries but pensions. Pensions are based on "final year salary" so what they do is cram an extra thousand hours of overtime into their last year, wildly inflating their pay, and guaranteeing themselves an obscenely generous pension for the next 40 years (they can retire at age 50). Most of them spend longer collecting a pension than they spent collecting a salary.

    7. Re:Most of the money spent at college by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's delve into this retarded argument:

      but you couldn't pay me enough to be a prison guard so long as there are other jobs going. Why shouldn't we pay them a fraction of a stockbrokers pay?

      Okay. I wouldn't do a lot of jobs featured on Dirty Jobs. Then again, since I worked my ass off in higher education, I don't have to. So by your logic, all these jobs should be paid premium wages.

      On the other hand why are we paying those stockbrokers so much when it's so much easier to find someone to do that job and they don't need as much training?

      Who is this 'we'? Do taxpayers fund most stockbrokers via taxation? AFAIK, I don't nor do I make use of stockbrokers. Apparently the people who pay stockbrokers think they're worth it.

      And isn't that the issue? Paying people what the market calls for? Or are we gonna pay every teacher an NBA star's salary and go broke based on your feelz?

    8. Re:Most of the money spent at college by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I don't have to. So by your logic, all these jobs should be paid premium wages

      No, by my logic the market is paying around what it needs to before people are prepared to do a shitty job. You said something like that yourself so how did you miss it?

  17. Except prison DOES accept nazi social media cunts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And more all the time.

  18. Harvard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you're a black lesbian transsexual Jew you'll get a full scholarship, for sure. Than it cost $0.

    1. Re:Harvard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh my God! Someone alert the victimstance patrol! POOR DISENFRANCHISED WHITE VICTIM DETECTED! Harvard how could you turn your back on uneducated nazi twats!

  19. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by PoopJuggler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If all of us would stop electing officials who don't mind paying $1.5 trillion for F35s when maybe we could make college free for everyone.

  20. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    No place on the planet does that.

    If college is free, it has _strict_ academic standards to get and stay in.

    And that makes complete sense, why should we send disruptive and/or unengaged students to college? Waste of time and money.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  21. incarceration vs education by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Imagine an organization responsible for/responding to folks between, say, 15-21 years of age, who recommend what should be done with/for/to a particular person, and that recommendation might include, for example, a scholarship/rejection/death by hanging by Brown, or ...
     

  22. 1 in 40 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow putting 1 in 40 people in prison in the US isn't working out well?

    Who could possible predict that privatisation of prisons combined with high recidivism (65%) would be expensive, and mandatory minimums.... crazy. what a waste of talent and labour for stupidly excessive punishments "as an example to others"

    Cap: thickens

    1. Re:1 in 40 by magarity · · Score: 1

      Wow putting 1 in 40 people in prison in the US isn't working out well?

      Total population of California: 40 million. Prison population of California: 130K. You might want to revise your x-in-y numbers.

  23. Expected by mesterha · · Score: 5, Informative

    While we pay too much to keep people in prison. (And spiteful people seem to want to keep them there.) The changes in California are not unreasonable. They show a 6% yearly increase. Given that the prison population is shrinking, it's not surprising that the fixed costs that are built into the system are going to give a number that is higher than inflation, which is about 2% over that timespan.

    --

    Chris Mesterharm
    1. Re:Expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not exactly "spiteful" to want to keep people who have murdered or raped others away from the rest of society, even at the expense of their fellow prisoners. The innocent public has more right to protection than those judged guilty.

      Whether this is well-managed is another question entirely. I'm sure there are plenty of things that could be improved and it would be better if nobody were to suffer.

    2. Re:Expected by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      'It's not exactly "spiteful" to want to keep people who have murdered or raped others away from the rest of society'

      What about the other half of the prison population?
      U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Prisoners in 2014" https://www.bjs.gov/content/pu...
      Table 11: Estimated percent of sentenced prisoners under state jurisdiction, by offense, sex, race, and Hispanic origin, December 31, 2013
      Violent crimes, all inmate: 53.2%
      Murder, all inmates: 12.5%
      Rape, all inmates: 12.5%

    3. Re:Expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Privatized prisons need to pull a profit. If they don't pull a bigger profit than last year, few will invest in a non-growing market segment. The tax payers pay for these profits. It's like a stock ticker where you can buy your taxes back as income.

      It should be obvious why one shouldn't privatize state functions. Eventually they become (to support the business needs) more expensive than an organization that doesn't carry the burden of being profitable. Yes, there are inefficiencies in government, but these are balanced by the inefficiencies of industry. Don't buy into the hype that because a person works for one entity, they'll do a lesser job, require more overhead, or somehow cost more.

    4. Re:Expected by mesterha · · Score: 1

      Privatized prisons need to pull a profit. If they don't pull a bigger profit than last year, few will invest in a non-growing market segment.

      I'd really like to understand this dynamic. Getting a constant 10% return on an investment would be great for most people. Isn't this a constant profit? (This assumes I get the money as a dividend, otherwise things get more complicated.)

      The tax payers pay for these profits. It's like a stock ticker where you can buy your taxes back as income.

      Just like a company, you can save money by doing it in house. In other words, we can save money by just having the government do it.

      It should be obvious why one shouldn't privatize state functions. Eventually they become (to support the business needs) more expensive than an organization that doesn't carry the burden of being profitable. Yes, there are inefficiencies in government, but these are balanced by the inefficiencies of industry.

      Right. The argument is that competing capitalist industry is better at being efficient. However, one needs to do a careful analysis to see when that holds true. It is the natural/necessary tendency of companies to try and distort the free market to maximize profits. Also one needs to understand how maximizing profits is connected to the goals of service. Maximizing the number of people is prison is profitable for private prisons, but is not great for the country.

      --

      Chris Mesterharm
  24. We're doing it wrong news at 11 by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The solution has already been demonstrated very well, it's called restorative justice.

    1. Re:We're doing it wrong news at 11 by by+(1706743) · · Score: 2
      Yeah, but this might happen...

      Staff forgot to lock up inmates

      On Friday night, staff at Norrtalje prison forgot to lock up six inmates in their cells, three of whom are convicted murderers.

      The inmates took their chance by baking chocolate cake and watching TV.

      "It was one of the most enjoyable evenings we've had in a long time," said one of the inmates.

  25. Major impact actually from MJ and MMJ by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I found out the King County budget was exploding, it turned out a lot of that was for enforcement, trials, juries, and prison for people who were using MJ.

    We slashed our budget by making MJ arrests the lowest enforcement priority in Seattle and Tacoma.

    Then we legalized MJ and MMJ statewide.

    California will soon do this as well.

    It's a "crime" that is almost entirely enforced on black and brown folks even though most users and dealers are actually white.

    And then they have prison records, so they can't work.

    By pardoning everyone and removing these "convictions" from their records, we increase the GDP and get more people working and paying taxes.

    Same for California. Same for Canada.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Major impact actually from MJ and MMJ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Then we legalized MJ and MMJ statewide.

      Then we legalized Michael Jordan and Mrs. Michael Jordan statewide? They shouldn't have been outlawed in the first place.

  26. Statistics by Major+Blud · · Score: 1

    The price for each inmate has doubled since 2005

    Is this one of those cases where the budget was fixed, and the number of inmates decreased, thereby making it look like the price of keeping an inmate increased? The summary itself says that the inmate population decreased by one-quarter, but at the same time the budget is the highest ever.

    --
    If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
  27. saving money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    maybe if California only pays for part of their sex reassignment surgery, that would save some money... Remember, it's not a penile colony...

  28. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or California could stop trying to make prisons into luxury apartments that also provide top notch health care services. But noooo, that's not politically correct, and California can't do that.

    So, following The Constitution is politically correct now. Nice to know.

  29. some people are in for the free doctors by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    some people are in for the free doctors

    1. Re:some people are in for the free doctors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TrumpCare! Go to prison if you want to see a doctor!

  30. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    Recidivism rates have not improved. So may of those released are likely to end up back in prison. Without addressing the underlying cause we shouldn't expect any change.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  31. Prison guards make around $150k a year in Calif. by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Prison guards' Union, for some weird reason, wields great power in California state legislature and the politicians generally just give them whatever they want.

  32. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    College educated people had to be hired to design the F-35. So it's not a total waste. Arms industry represents about 2% of the nation's GDP and about 10% of the US's manufacturing output.

    Obviously being the world leader in death and destruction doesn't sit well with some of us. But it is extremely profitable.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  33. Let's help them steal the whole railroad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
    Theodore Roosevelt

    https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/theodorero101963.html

  34. Prisons are not about protecting society. by Lumpy · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Prisons are a business, Anyone thinking otherwise is incredibly uneducated on how the USA does things in the legal system.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Prisons are not about protecting society. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Prisons are a business, Anyone thinking otherwise is incredibly uneducated on how the USA does things in the legal system.

      Yes.

      When you combine privately run prisons & our corrupt (lobbying) political system, it's a perfect storm of S$!+

  35. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    You assume that people who are in prison would be "unengaged" or "disruptive". If you solve whatever social or behavioral or economic problem that caused them to commit felonies then I'd argue you are part of the way there to education, graduation and meaningful employment. A very big "if" of course.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  36. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    No place on the planet does that.
    If you mean planet earth, you are wrong. Facepalm.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  37. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Surely there must be some middle ground between "cruel and unusual punishment" and the costs TFA is talking about.

  38. Best Idea Ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think that is a great idea. Send all the criminals to Massachusetts. One way.

    Side bet: I bet Mass switches from blue to red in a couple of elections after doing so.

  39. real cost analysis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do we know the cost of criminals running freely? if a prisoner does more than 75000 damage in a year it would be worth it to keep them locked up still despite the cost.

  40. That's not what we're paying for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A fraction of the space in a bare prison cell in an aging-and-already-paid-for prison cell + three basic mass-produced meals per day do NOT cost over $70K per year.

    Here's what's REALLY happening:

    Democrat governor Jerry "moonbeam" Brown and the Democrat super-majority legislature are pouring vast sums of cash into all the California agencies with unionized employees (whose unions pour cash into Democrat campaigns). The CA prison guards union is a vital element of the Democrat coalition here, right up there with the CalTrans wokers and right behind the teachers. We have prison guards who retire on $400K pensions.

    1. Re:That's not what we're paying for by sabbede · · Score: 1

      Think about this - low pay often means low quality employees, but more importantly, it gives them an incentive to take bribes. Good pay disincentivizes taking bribes.

    2. Re:That's not what we're paying for by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      I was there with you until the $400k number. Any evidence of that?

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
  41. Costs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A year at Harvard? Sheeit, $75k won't even cover 140 hours in a Bell 206-B3.

    This *is* the apples vs. oranges thread, right?

    AC

  42. House them at Harvard then. by sethstorm · · Score: 1

    That university seems to generate a lot of criminals anyway, what's a few more?

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  43. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by alvinrod · · Score: 1

    That of course assumes that it is something solvable. Obviously not everyone in prison in some kind of hopeless case with no hope of redemption. That some people get out and turn their lives around disproves that quite easily, but there are some people who clearly can't function in society or be let out. The obvious examples like Charles Manson or serial rapists probably aren't "curable" by modern means. If it were that easy, we'd have already figured out how to cure things like ADD or schizophrenia.

    The real question is where is the line drawn. We know that there's a group that can come out of prison and integrate into society without further problem and we know there's another group on the other side that are beyond hope and can't ever come out. But most people don't clearly fall into either group and we don't have a good way to quickly and accurate categorize them or a surefire way of ensuring that those we think can be helped can be helped such that there's no or almost no recidivism.

  44. Duh, it's Kalifornia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coastal states like California and New York are flat out more expensive, so what did you expect? I'm sure there is some space in Wyoming to house these prisoners. Bonus: If they escape, there is nothing for miles.

  45. Re:Prison guards make around $150k a year in Calif by phantomfive · · Score: 0

    When you have term limits, then politicians leave and lobbyists stay around. The lobbyists keep getting better at manipulating politicians, but just when the politicians learn to handle it, a new politician comes in.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  46. Re:Prison guards make around $150k a year in Calif by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And your point? Are you saying people who have to deal with anyone from the local pot dude to psychotic murderers should not be paid a reasonable wage? If you're from a rural area $150k might seem like a lot, but $150k is not much in California.

  47. Harvard? by sootman · · Score: 1

    Or Yale?

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  48. No, it's $3774 per month by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The top of the pay scale isn't even half of what you claim.

    Earlier this year four guards were injured in separate assaults. One guy got his face slashed in San Quentin.

    You want that job for $45,000 a year living in the Bay Area?

    http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/career_opportunities/por/pay.html

    Pay and Benefits

    Correctional Officer/Youth Correctional Officer
    Range A = $3,050 (During Academy)
      Range J = $3,774 (After Academy)
      Range K = $6,389 (Top of Pay Scale)

      Youth Correctional Counselor
      Range A = $3,050 (During Academy)
      Range J = $4,142 (After Academy)
      Range K = $6,743 (Top of pay scale)

    1. Re:No, it's $3774 per month by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's nice. How about looking at some real world data:

      http://gawker.com/5797381/spoi...

      "One sergeant with a base salary of $81,683 collected $114,334 in overtime and $8,648 in bonuses last year, and he's not even the highest paid."

      $81k base + $114k overtime + $8k bonus = $203k

      Oh and not every prison guard lives in Bay area.

    2. Re:No, it's $3774 per month by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Even the ones that do, live near San Quentin. Not exactly Pacifica.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  49. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Name a place that has unlimited college for failing students?

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  50. blame the california supreme court system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I live in California and been listening to talk radio jockeys squawk about this for some time. Though MUCH of the cost goes to CalPERS (see state employee union) a large portion is spent on inmate healthcare which due to constant litigation examples being california prisons paying for sex reassignment surgery etc. the problem is inmates know to litigate the system to death, and instead of fighting the prison system rolls over and rolls over and rolls over. This is why California as a whole is so damn expensive, the state is trying to save anyone with complete irresponsibility when it comes to the bill

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/us/california-is-first-to-pay-for-prisoners-sex-reassignment-surgery.html?_r=0

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Plata

    https://www.calpers.ca.gov/

  51. Re: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The US is a nation of opportunity, not stability. Most of the opportunities are offered to new immigrants to pursue positive advertising of the US brand, which is why most successful startups have 1st or 2nd generation immigrant people at the helm from an ivy league school. The US has one of the worst Social Mobility scores among the developed nations, and there is no evidence that will change in the future.

  52. Term limits are not good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Great or even good politicians are RARE and we need to hang on to them as long as they remain good.

    Entrenched crooks are also a problem; but gone are the days where crooks had to fight with honest people to get elected. The honest have a much harder fight to even get past the party-level corrupt filtering, then the race itself which has turned into reality TV... even the idiot running CNN thinks politics is a sport. It's also so nasty and dishonest that only cut throat social climbers and sociopaths are prepared to (or want to) enter the arena.

    Idiocracy: Trump was just 1 step away from a WWE pornstar...

    1. Re:Term limits are not good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The founding fathers did just fine without needing decades of stale corruption under their belt. Term limits for congress members are the single most important thing this country needs to reform the government. If the states ever had an article V convention, that should be item #1 to vote on since the legislative class will never impose it on themselves. Somehow, they manage to get re-elected over and over based on name recognition, having the political mechanisms working for them, lobbyist money for selling out and a platform to spread their propaganda. Congress' approval rating is usually less than 30 percent or so, most governments would be dissolved under such conditions.

  53. Hmm. Per Prisoner? by hey! · · Score: 1

    Isn't California in the middle of a multi-year effort to reduce the size of its prison population? And didn't they just pass a proposition to increase the number of non-violent offenders given parole?

    Simple thought experiment. Suppose you had facilities for a million prisoners, and they were totally full. Then you reduce the number of prisoners to just one, maintaining the capacity to handle a million inmates. What would happen to your total prison spending? What would happen to your per inmate spending?

    It seems pretty obvious to me that your total prison spending would drop, but your per-prisoner cost would be astronomical.

    PPC = M + TFC/n

    where:
          PPC -- per prisoner cost
          M -- marginal expenses for each prisoner (food, clothing, etc.)
          TFC -- total fixed costs for the system (building maintenance, administrataion)
          n -- number inmates in the system.

    So right off the bat the taxpayers are paying less on prisons, but you can't instantaneously make all that excess capacity disappear. You'd expect a short term spike in per prisoner spending until you could start closing parts of each prison, or maybe even entire prisons.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:Hmm. Per Prisoner? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was not a SIMPLE thought experiment.

    2. Re:Hmm. Per Prisoner? by hey! · · Score: 1

      Well, then I apologize. One does lose lose sight of what seems simple to others.

      This reminds me of one of my former colleagues, a CPA, called "the accounting koan": When are fixed costs variable, and variable costs fixed?

      Let me say, that gem simply killed in our little group.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  54. Theoretical research to work on this has been done by Rubonnek · · Score: 1

    There are two summer research articles, both from the MTBI at Arizona, that come to mind:

    Prison Reform Programs, and their Impact on Recidivism, and Minimizing recidivism by optimizing profit: a theoretical case study of incentivized reform in a Louisiana prison.

    I'm aware the keyword here is 'theoretical', and there's a chance that the equations brought out by the research may have to be updated for other unseen problems, but I can't help but wonder if any of these articles have been put to good use.

  55. What number is moving by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Number of dollars per year divided by number of prisoners = cost per prisoner.
    More dollars + less prisoners => more dollars per prisoner.

    From the article:

    Critics say with fewer inmates, the costs should be falling.

    “Now that we’re incarcerating less, we haven’t ramped the system back down,” said Chris Hoene, executive director of the left-leaning California Budget & Policy Center. .... but we let go all the easy-going pot-heads. All we have left are the "Bad Hombres" which are more expensive to keep imprisoned.

    A little math from a different angle...

    If you take $11.4B and divide it between 12.8M households with a mean income per household of $61K, it means that we all spend 1.46% of our household income (or $890 per year on average per household) on maintaining our prisons. I wonder how Californians would feel about that if they knew?

    Consider this:

    If there's any state that can do a better job incarcerating people for less money, let's have CA send some prisoners there and have CA give the receiving state a little extra money for their trouble. Win-win? "Utah prisons: Yelp, 4 stars, 3 hots and a cot, nice views, but no vegan options for meals. At least it's better than California."

  56. Can prison labor system be reformed to help? by somename · · Score: 1

    I don't want to discuss the morals of prison labor, but as long as the constitution explicitly allow penal labor, why not make the best use of it? From little I know from penal labor system in US, it seems most of the benefits from penal labor goes to private business who gets labor contract below market. Can the system be overhauled to pay the prisoners near market pay? It seems there's benefit on both sides. The prison system can alleviate the cost of running the system, and the prisoners can have opportunity to learn trade and a chance to leave prison with some savings by allowing them a percentage of their pay. I don't have much knowledge about penal labor or even prison system in general, but it seems like it should be feasible at least.

    1. Re:Can prison labor system be reformed to help? by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      It might help the abuses of prison labor if the profits went to something public like roads or schools instead of being used to offset prison costs. Proper budgets and ceasing the for-profit prison industry would make it easier to bring in reforms. The other barrier is that some believe that a felon deserves nothing more than a bullet to the brain. (I'm not trying to bring up a strawman, really it's only a rhetorical device)

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    2. Re: Can prison labor system be reformed to help? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's interesting. But how do you keep the market value of the job if now you have a larger pool of candidates for a job? It's seems to be a difficult problem.

  57. Costs high? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's still cheaper, and possibly more productive than sending them to congress.

  58. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And so many quality-of-life and medical inventions are a result of our military research.

  59. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    I mean unlimited FREE college, obviously.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  60. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Name a place that has unlimited college for failing students?

    Austria, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Argentina, Uruguay, Finland, Germany... those are the ones I know, the attending is free the study materials not always, so if you don't progress in your career you will be losing money and time. Most universities and careers have some kind of admision test but usually it's only the first two years that are overcrowded.

  61. Bad Comparison by SoulMaster · · Score: 5, Informative

    This comparison is stupid.

    Contrary to popular belief: Harvard's true tuition is based on your family's income/assets, it's not fixed like standard schools. I get that the "list price" is $69K, but that's not the "cost" if your family isn't earning ~$250K/year. Harvard has "need-based" scholarship programs that can reduce the true cost to zero or near zero. The point is, if your academics can get you into Harvard College, they don't want you to worry about the price, they want you to attend. Oh, and they disallow student loans. https://college.harvard.edu/fi...

    From the Harvard site (linked): "In fact, approximately 70 percent of our students receive some form of aid, and about 60 percent receive need–based scholarships and pay an average of $12,000 per year. Twenty percent of parents pay nothing. No loans required."

    Here's a calculator: https://college.harvard.edu/fi...

    In other words, the "genius" who made this comparison isn't Harvard material - and is trying to say "it's expensive to house our inmates" by assuming Harvard is expensive. The truth is, it's not.

    If s/he had done some research, s/he could should have said "Cost of a Porsche Boxster S", or something else that is actually "expensive" instead of making the poor people think they've got no chance of affording Harvard if they can get in.

    Sloppy journalism.

    -SM

    Go Crimson!

    1. Re:Bad Comparison by Patent+Lover · · Score: 2

      Perhaps California prisons need an endowment.

    2. Re:Bad Comparison by Goldsmith · · Score: 1

      This is a real non-sequitur you're bringing up, and it seems a lot like advertising copy rather than a real argument.

      There is a history in California higher education journalism of comparing the amount spent per inmate against the amount spent per UC student. It used to be that the state spent more per student than per inmate. Then the combined expenditure of the state and the student was more than the amount spent per inmate, Then the total amount spent per student at UC from all sources was less than the amount the state spent per inmate. This is an extension of that argument using a school that spends much more per student than UC. The "list cost" as you say of attending Harvard is high, and is an appropriate metric for comparison here, particularly when you have an understanding of the history of the argument.

      If you want to get into a debate over how various universities cater to diverse economic classes, this may not be the place for that discussion. Step one in that debate really should be finding some third party data. I know you're actually right that Harvard is affordable (on average only about $1k more per year than a UC), but you're referencing marketing material, not data, and touting it makes you less credible.

    3. Re:Bad Comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Harvards income is not just student fees. The reason Harvard can afford to subsidise students is because of the large income from patents and grants. ALL students are subsidised by this. The income from prisoners work is negligible. The true cost (not just student fees) of a person attending Harvard is much more than the cost per inmate of California prisons.

    4. Re:Bad Comparison by SoulMaster · · Score: 1

      "When you have an understanding of the history of the argument", presumes that the reader does have that knowledge, which is referenced nowhere in TFA. It's obtuse to assume everyone is as learned as you are about this comparison. And no, the financial aid calculator that determines your "need based" assistance level isn't exactly "marketing material". Since you want to dismiss it, here's your real data:

      http://www.collegecalc.org/col...

      The point of my original comment, which you missed, is that if you're going use use a "list price" quote it as MSRP, not "the cost of attending Harvard". The kids who get in to Harvard are some of the brightest in the land and when they don't have a need for need-based scholarships, they get scholarships anyway.

      As I said, it's poor reporting. The article (and it's headline) talks about "cost of attending" not "price". Meaning, it's not at all non-sequitur to point out the difference between MSRP and actual "cost".

      -SM

  62. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In countries that have FREE college, you can fail as much as you want, it still free. Subjects and classes may expire if you don't get the next one after some years tho.

  63. RELEASE The prisoners! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Put them all in Nancy Pelosi's house!

    She loves diversity.

  64. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    I know for a fact that it isn't true for Germany. Don't make grades in HS, no college. Don't make grades for one semester in college, find yourself bouncing down the stairs, on your ass. Germany needs ditch diggers too.

    Paying for permastudents to party is far beyond reasonable.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  65. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Again, name one.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  66. unpopular fix by frovingslosh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I realize tat the snowflakes are going to call me a Trump fascist, but maybe it is time that these prisoners only get basic cable and not all of the premium channels.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:unpopular fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Surely you're joking if you think cutting a marginal cost will do anything to fix the price per inmate.

    2. Re:unpopular fix by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

      They should all just get twitter accounts. They should only be able to tweet between midnight and 4am.

    3. Re:unpopular fix by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

      I realize tat the snowflakes are going to call me a Trump fascist, but maybe it is time that these prisoners only get basic cable and not all of the premium channels.

      If you read the article it says the guard ratio has increase from 4/1 to 2/1. Even 4/1 is nuts. Designed right, I don't see why a 10 to 1 ratio or even higher shouldn't be possible. You need to guard from outside attack (at least long enough for military reinforcements) and you need a decent number of staff when actually moving prisoners, etc... and then you need some people to prepare food, delivery food, etc.. A 2 guard team should easily be able to serve food to 60 people per hour. Starting at 11am and ending at 2pm, that is 180 cells for 2 guards or a ratio of 90/1. You obviously need more than 2 guards for entering a cell but a squad of 10 should be more than enough for entering a cell. You have other support staff and maybe a swat team on standby but there is no reason this should be anywhere close to 10/1 much less 4/1 or 2/1.

    4. Re:unpopular fix by eaglesrule · · Score: 1
      Better yet, construct an effective barrier to stem the flow of illegal immigration. Criminal Alien statistics study dated 2009 showed some really remarkable figures. From the study:

      Based on our random sample of 1,000 criminal aliens, we estimate that our study population of about 249,000 criminal aliens were arrested about 1.7 million times, averaging about 7 arrests per criminal alien, slightly lower than the 8 arrests per criminal alien we reported in 2005.23 They were arrested for a total of about 2.9 million offenses, averaging about 12 offenses per criminal alien, slightly lower than the 13 offenses per criminal alien we reported in 2005.

      The study then shows a figure that over half of said criminal aliens were arrested in CA. So if CA has a criminal alien problem, and the cost of incarcerating them is paid for by the federal government, then there would be an incentive by local leaders to keep costs high.

  67. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're already giving people a free education: it's just that the skills and habits that people learn in prison at present are unlikely to benefit society as a whole. Now imagine that you could redirect some of that money to educating prisoners to divert them from a future life of still more crime rather than brutalising them and increasing the chance that they'll commit further crime on release.

  68. that's cheap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    compared to RI

  69. Outsource it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Send them to Thailand or better to Russia.

    If the crime was violent enough to get 5 years of it - pack a flight of them and send over, I don't think it will cost more than $50k for 5 years.

    An additional benefit - potential inmates will think twice before committing a crime as a sweaty hot prison in Thailand or a freaking cold one in Russia aren't as good as Californian ones.

  70. cheap prisons for bangerboiz and wetttbakkks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A 10x10' barb-wire plot, tent and cot in the scorpion/rattlesnake infested desert. 2-Gallons of grey-water, bread-roll & chicken-dog each day. One fag for every 300-Lbs of rocks cracked. Nothing else. Nada nothing nix. No visitors no communication no toys.

  71. Bullshit by Rujiel · · Score: 1

    Many of the people imprisoned in the US are there for nonviolent drug charges. Pile of dead bodies, my ass.

    1. Re:Bullshit by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

      Drugs, they've never killed anyone. - Rujiel

      Drug Deaths in America Are Rising Faster Than Ever: Drug overdose deaths in 2016 most likely exceeded 59,000. This is greater that the peak car crash deaths, HIV deaths, and gun deaths.
      Drug related Homicides accounts for more far more Americna deaths any any war. Thousands are killed in feuds between gangs and dealers looking to expand or protect their drug trade.
      People die every day form drug driving.. I know someone who who was completely totaled just last year because of a completely "non-violent drug user". 1 death and 2 others who are never going to recover fully. Statistically, it would of been better had this "non-violent offender" just decided rob a bank at gunpoint.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    2. Re:Bullshit by beelsebob · · Score: 1

      It's almost like if you made a bunch of drugs legal you'd solve these problems...

      1) You'd improve the quality and consistency of the supply, allowing people to properly measure how much they're taking, making overdoses less common

      2) You'd make safer drugs legal, making it rarer that people went for the less safe drugs, and hence rarer that they overdosed.

      3) You'd remove control of the sale of drugs from dealers with a vested interest in addicting you to something ever worse for you, and put it into sensibly regulated hands, again, making overdose less likely.

      4) You'd legitimise sales, killing the market for illegitimate dealers, and stopping turf wars.

      Most of the problems you highlight are either solved, or improved by legalising drugs, and made worse by cracking down on them.

    3. Re: Bullshit by Rujiel · · Score: 1

      1. Your own article fingers opioids--read, mostly LEGAL drugs--as the top killer. 2. Drugs are a viable form of profit to gangs and cartels due to their *illegality*, which you are a proponent of. 3. The volume of deaths from drunk driving dwarfs that of impaired driving from just about all other drugs combined. Were you a nixon voter? How does it feel to be living half a century in the past ideogically? How's that drug war going for you? Give me a call when you think we're winning it.

    4. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most certainly, anyone who has anything to do with drugs should be locked up with gen pop in your local prison. Statistics show this really helps solve all of the problems!

    5. Re: Bullshit by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

      "counterfeit prescription opioids" = legal drugs = no crime was committed.
      I am really not sure what you are saying. The article clearly states that opioids or a large portion of the street drugs, many many people are arrested with the drug on them, and it is heavily implied they are a large share of the overdoses.

      So many of those people in jail are their because of opioids. Many of the bodies in the morgue are from opioid overdoses, and many of the gang killings are over opioids.

      I never said they should be legal or illegal, I just said that people who kill people, and will kill people in the future should be locked up to prevent those future deaths.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  72. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not only could we pay for college tuition, but we could also power the entire nation via solar-tower-power. Not only that, but it could be completely built by prisoners.

  73. Real costs. by jcr · · Score: 1

    Of course, it doesn't cost anything like $75 grand to keep a prisoner locked up and fed for a year. This is just a case of a $600 hammer, and the scam here is the money being paid into bureaucrat's salaries, pension padding, etc.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  74. 75,000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pay each felon 75K not to do any crime.

  75. Send them to Harvard! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They'll get an education in how to become a real criminal President, banker or surveillance tech startup founder, and California saves some cash. Two birds, one stone.

  76. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Better luck next reincarnation. Thanks for playing!

    What do you say to someone who has been huffing toluene for a decade? They're done.

    On another vein: In the world of finite seats *, educating one person has an opportunity cost of not educating another, possibly more than one...

    Big part of why so much of college's population is kids. The oldsters students are there as sorta-teachers, like yeast in dough. The fact is that 'years of use' has a lot to do with how 'socially useful' education is, so younger is better. Arguing that a 45 year old, released felon, is the best use of a university seat isn't going to be easy.

    Also in the picture: For profit schools with 'infinite seats', that will take anyone. Buyer beware.

    * when I was in college, most classes had empty seats. But there was always a bunch of underclassmen courses that filled the fucking room, multiple times (people sat on the stairs, first couple of classes, but the class was half empty by the end) at the start of each semester. Limited the student supply to downstream classes. Teacher effort also counts, you just can't stuff extra kids into programs for free. Then again, average university professor effort is not 100%, but changing that?

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  77. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Or California could stop trying to make prisons into luxury apartments that also provide top notch health care services. But noooo, that's not politically correct, and California can't do that.

    That budget could do as you say (in the ridiculous situation that doesn't exist where it's desired) but it's not what is happening. It's going in profit. The taxpayers are being scammed by the prison owners.

  78. You hit on the real reason for MJ being a crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's to keep 'undesirables' out of your neighborhood. Simply put if you've got a group of poor people odds are good at least one's got drugs on them (both to cope with poverty and to cope with mental illnesses that go untreated in the poor). Our drug laws mean guilt by association. If you get pulled over with drugs in your car because a friend has pot they take your car.

    This works wonders to keep the poor in their place. They don't wander into the rich neighborhoods to use their parks, schools and other (much nicer) public facilities. They don't try to buy houses anywhere near the well to do. It's the prefect way to enforce the class divide without talking about it. If you look up the history of illegal drugs they were uniformly used for this purpose. Pot let us kick Migrant Mexican workers out. Opium let us crack down on the Chinese. Etc, etc.

  79. Single issue voting by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    and solidarity. While the rest of the electorate is worried their guns'll get taken away or that their wife/daughter might someday need an abortion to survive they vote one and only one way. It's the same reason folks over 65 are powerful. So long as you don't fuck with their medicare you can set fire to the rest of the world.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  80. Typo by dbIII · · Score: 1

    "where it's desired" should be "even if it was desired".
    The reality of prisons not being your ridiculous suggestion of luxury penthouses should show how utterly stupid the post blaming the "product" and not the supplier was anyway.
    The prisons are just being used as a way to overcharge the taxpayer.

  81. The solution is to get money out of politics by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    Make a law that you can only donate to a candidate directly and only if you can personally vote for them. Then limit the amount you can donate to something along the lines of $500 dollars or less. Punish violations by banning any and all people from holding public office. Then require anyone who holds an office above dog catcher to retire from public life after their term is served. Problem solved.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:The solution is to get money out of politics by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      If you can't find loopholes in that, you're not very creative.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:The solution is to get money out of politics by Jiro · · Score: 1

      Hi, I see you've written a blog where you declare your support for the political candidate of the party I don't like. This blog is equivalent to a donation of labor and publicity to that candidate. Unfortunately, we've determined that the value of this donation is greater than $500. Sorry, you need to be punished.

  82. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by KGIII · · Score: 1

    Well, we can expect them to reoffend sooner than usual. See? That's change!

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  83. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by dbIII · · Score: 1

    College educated people had to be hired to design the F-35

    With the helmet so heavy that it can kill people who eject (and a long list of other things) I'm not so sure about that.
    I suppose MBAs come from college as well.

  84. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What do you say to someone who has been huffing toluene for a decade? They're done.

    Doubtful that represents the majority of inmates

    Big part of why so much of college's population is kids. The oldsters students are there as sorta-teachers, like yeast in dough. The fact is that 'years of use' has a lot to do with how 'socially useful' education is, so younger is better. Arguing that a 45 year old, released felon, is the best use of a university seat isn't going to be easy.

    So we failed a generation. There is a way to clean this up, but it is expensive and runs against the anti-welfare sentimate in our culture.

    Also in the picture: For profit schools with 'infinite seats', that will take anyone. Buyer beware.

    Standardization and transparency

  85. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by KGIII · · Score: 1

    You didn't even read the question you quoted and responded to. I'm not so sure I'd stand behind the quality of your education.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  86. private out of state prisons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The answer is private prisons in the Deep South. Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi prisons where low wage labor is more plentiful.

  87. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

    But most people don't clearly fall into either group and we don't have a good way to quickly and accurate categorize them or a surefire way of ensuring that those we think can be helped can be helped such that there's no or almost no recidivism.

    We don't care. We set minimum mandatory sentences and take away the ability for judges to actually use discretion. The prisons know who the at risk prisoners are and who aren't. The low risk prisoners are the ones working in the cafeteria, workshops, etc... The prisons don't have the ability to release them early nor do they have an incentive as these low risk prisoners are cheap and safe to house.

  88. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Well, the base assumption is that threatening people enough and punishing them makes them into good people. This is a fundamentalist religious idea. It does not work at all in actual reality, but fundamentalists are incapable of understanding cause-effect relationships or that their ideas and methods may not work.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  89. Can't afford to enforce the law... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...so let's just put criminals out on the streets. What could possibly go wrong?

  90. Completely dishonest claim by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It did not cost the nation's founders $70K+ per year to house a prisoner. They provided no electric lights, no heating, no air conditioning, no telephones, no radio, no TV, no basketball courts, no weight rooms, no dentists, etc and, as the AUTHORS of the Constitution, THEY more than anybody else certainly knew what they meant about "cruel and unusual punishment".

    Just how does throwing a gang member into a cage with 3 other gang members and tossing in a breakfast bar an a couple of bologna sandwiches per prisoner per day = $70K+ per year???? If there are 4 prisoners in a cell, then we are being asked to believe that this ONE CELL (whose construction was paid for long ago and which is not subject to taxation) is costing $280K per year!!!!!! Something tells me the governor of California and his political allies are spending an enourmous heap of money elsewhere, or the reporter is lying to push an agenda of unleashing a wave of criminals upon society.

  91. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's because we bitch about a judge who uses that discretion because they gave a 'light sentence'.

  92. Give offshore outsourcing a chance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wouldn't it be cheaper to send prisoners to China, India, or Africa? For a lot less than $75k per man/year, they would build prisons and guard the prisoners. Anyone who escapes is stuck in the middle of a foreign country, unlikely to return to the US. Maximum security would be in Alaska, guarded by Eskimos and polar bears.

  93. Just another reason to get the f out CA by guacamole · · Score: 0

    High crime, high taxes, high cost of living, high cost of _public_ education, high pollution in big cities, classic big government everywhere. Lefties are ruining everything.

    Knowingly exposing others to HIV should no longer be a felony, state Senate says

  94. A bullet is cheaper. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And has a greater return on investment.

  95. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    I've spend a lot of time reading religious material. Their attitude to prison is that all prisoners are evil vile people and the scum of the earth, an the only possible hope for their reform is to find salvation in Jesus and be cleaned of their sins. Therefore all money spent on prisoner education and rehabilitation is wasted, because only Jesus can make someone into a good person.

    Their main concerns are 1. Making sure prisons have plenty of chaplains who can convert people. 2. Protecting the religious freedom of the chaplains to preach without government control, especially if they want to preach about how evil homosexuals are. 3. Making sure that the filthy heathen Muslims don't get their own preachers in to turn prisoners into terrorists.

    In short: They do not believe in rehabilitation, except via conversion.

    Also note that, with the exception of people who convert while in prison, they regard prisons as having exactly zero Christian population: No true Christian would ever end up in prison, and anyone who claims to be a Christian but still ends up in prison is simply lying about their faith.

  96. Capitalism at work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Prisons are the late stage capitalism's wet dream. Captive customer base and externalized acquisition costs.

    No wonder the USA is ahead in prisoners per capita (but fret not: Turkey is doing pretty well these days and China'll eventually catch up; the only missing piece for those two is to privatize their jail system too).

  97. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  98. time to cut the costs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is time to start cost cutting.
    Bring back death penalty.
    Yes, i am talking about corrupted officials, pimps, drug dealers, false advertisers, ...
    Honest murderers my wait for second turn.

  99. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by RuffMasterD · · Score: 1

    Meh. Airforce pilots are expendable now that we have relatively cheap drones controlled from comfortable offices in the US.

    --
    Human Rights, Article 12: Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence
  100. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then do not eject. Coward.

  101. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Basically every european country has free colleges/universities.
    And ofc you need to have the appropriated high school degree (Abitur) to get accepted, that is a no brainer.

    And you likely knew that, so about what do you want to argue?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  102. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    Well F-35's are being produced and sold and not destroyed. So it's not a real broken window fallacy.

    We could argue that keeping schools open just to give teachers a job is equivalent to the broken window.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  103. Strike by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    I think that is probably a pretty common issue. I know it is similar where I am. At one point they were part of my union, which was silly because every time there was a strike vote (no matter what it was) they would vote 99.9% to go on strike. They knew that they would all be for the most part classified as essential workers and not be allowed to strike anyway. Meaning all the rest of us would have to go out to win them them benefits. They are still in a related union, but at least don't vote with us anymore. There was a recent vote like a year or so ago, and management was going to start installing management types from other business areas as prison guards (or that was the threat). I can only imagine how disastrous that would have been (though I think some of us were secretly hoping some of our management might have to do it and see what "happens"). At any rate, of course that didn't happen and they got what they want, which is what they always do. Which is why it is so expensive and why they all have such high salaries. That isn't to say they don't have some legitimate grievances (like safety, and numbers, and facilities, etc...), but salary isn't really one of them. Don't get me wrong, not an easy or fun job, with danger and stress, they should be compensated fairly... that said the pendulum swings. I've always been a bit critical of industries that have "unions" but who more less legally can't strike, seems a bit silly (Prison guards, Police, Fire, Nurses, doctors, teachers to a certain extent politically as parents can deal with children)... It is kind of a slap in the face to other unions struggling to get that 0.5, 1 or 2% inflationary increase when some of these other are getting unsustainable 6 and 8% increases year over year. At any rate it is mostly political cowardice, most would pass the buck to the next guy and them blame them for not being able to balance the budget.

  104. they need Sheriff Joe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sheriff Joe put prisoners in tents. If it is good enough for our soldiers, it is good enough for criminals.
    Put them on a Vegan diet. The Cali liberals should approve of that.
    Get them working, learn a trade or cleaning common areas.
    Boot the "undocumented" back to their own country.

  105. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know for a fact that is true for Argentina.
    That's one place.

    It's true that seems a waste of resources. But now I'm interested to know the per graduate cost (taking into account all the resources invested). And I'm doubious if the spending in basic investigation should be excluded or not...

    I don't have the numbers right now

  106. Congrats by McCovican · · Score: 1

    Such is the price of mandatory-minimum vengeance policies, paid out to the private sector.

  107. Re:We're doing it wrong - depor them to Norway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Norway is a small homogenous country. It does not have as many people walking across its borders.
    The article mentions areas with gangs. We should deport our gang bangers to Norway.
    Lets see how well they deal with a few million hard cores that don't speak the language.
    We can start with first time offenders and see if it works for them.

  108. Why pay for Harvard? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously. Many Harvard graduates are in prison :)

  109. Then CUT the cost by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Take away some of their "stuff" Cut out cable, internet, exercise equipment, and what other crap they get. Put the able bodied ones on chain gangs out cleaning up the roadways, cutting the weeds. Make prison more like the movie "Cool Hand Luke" and maybe people would be less inclined to break the law. A lot of prisoners get "cleaned up" beefed up in prison, get out, commit more crimes, strung out on dope go back in, clean up again, and repeat the process. Make it where they DON'T want to go to prison, maybe, just maybe a few of them will stay out of trouble.

    1. Re:Then CUT the cost by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      I don't think making prison less of a rehabilitation and more of a vindictive hellhole will do anything to address the underlying issue that there are too many prisoners to begin with. Removing non violent drug offenses, and the profit motive for criminal gangs (and thus their desire for recruitment) would be a better method. Give those who get "cleaned up" a path for success on the outside, rather than just tossing them back to the wolves would also have a positive effect. Immigration reform and tighter border control too would reduce the revolving door of the prison population.

      But there is money and politics involved. Greed and tribalism rules us, so your solution seems more likely.

  110. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    What generation did we fail? Not the ones whining right now, they are just 'at that age' where they realize the world is a messy place. The dumb ones adopt dumb philosophies (socialism/communism/anarcho syndicalism) out of denial.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  111. Coddle by tmjva · · Score: 1

    Subject germane.

    --
    Tracy Johnson
    Old fashioned text games hosted below:
    http://empire.openmpe.com/
    BT
  112. and, that's because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's because California prison guards make a lot more than Harvard professors, and can retire with full benefits much earlier. Also, no PhD needed. No BA needed. GED will do.

  113. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    may be I misunderstood. the first Christian went to prison, then a few more in his lifetime. what was your point?

  114. wow US jail is expensive by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

    I spend less than $6000 per year for rent, utilities, and food. So for the cost of one year in prison I could live for 12 years without working. I wonder how many of those criminals would be in jail if we had some sort of minimum basic income in the US. Not that I am claiming such a system is viable, but it sounds like in the case of the prisoners it would be much cheaper.

    --
    Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
  115. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Indeed. These people are completely messed up and do not know it. Probably the only way to exceed "deeply stupid" is "deeply religious".

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  116. Re: If only all of us would stop committing feloni by dcw3 · · Score: 0

    You shouldn't speak about the document. You clearly haven't read it.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  117. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    I thought the left didn't like stereotypes...oh, the irony.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  118. Re:If only all of us would stop committing felonie by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    And so many quality-of-life and medical inventions are a result of our military research.

    I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or believe what you said. So, just for starters, there's radar, duct tape, jet engines, and oh yeah...the Internet.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  119. The thing is... by iq145 · · Score: 1

    It's quite a different education, though!