Posted on 08/18/2009 11:17:40 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
California turned down an offer made by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to house several thousand of its prisoners, citing cost considerations as well as a lack of mental-health resources and security coverage.
A letter written to the Michigan Department of Corrections by California Department of Corrections Secretary Matthew L. Cate said the decision was due in part to costs. Michigan's offer was more costly than what California currently pays to house prisoners in private facilities in other states. A copy of the letter was made available to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Gov. Granholm is now left to decide if the state will accept hundreds of terrorism suspects now held in Guantanamo Bay instead. The Obama administration is considering Michigan's maximum-security facility in Standish, also offered to California, for this purpose.
Such a move is less popular locally and may do less to save the hundreds of jobs Michigan was hoping to preserve by accepting out of state prisoners. Terrorist detainees, unlike prisoners from other states, would have to be guarded by federal authorities.
Michigan needs to cut $120 million from its $2 billion prison budget for the fiscal year starting in October. The state has offered to take prisoners from anywhere in the country and is hoping to close some of that gap and save hundreds of jobs in the process.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
They are going to house criminals, not politicians. Oh, wait a minute, oh yeah........
NOT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD !!!
ROFL
Hmmmm...
First, the Gitmo detainees - now, this...
Is Michigan angling to become The American Gulag???
Jennifer Granholm strikes again.
Here in Texas, small towns will campaign to get local prisons built. It’s money coming in, and provides jobs. That said, many of the prisoner families end up moving into the area, so crime goes up and neighborhoods go down.
It’s a lucrative business, housing prisoners.
“Gov. Granholm is now left to decide if the state will accept hundreds of terrorism suspects now held in Guantanamo Bay instead.”
That should work out well, what with the proximity of Dearborn and all...
The solution for California is simple: Joe Arpaio-style tent jails in the desert. By international laws, military style field conditions are *not* a violation of human rights. And they cost just a fraction of “brick” jails.
This not only solves California’s prison overcrowding problem, but provides much more space per inmate, and with multiple facilities allows for segregation and separation of gang members. Numerous subsections of the tent cities can be split off with internal fences, like cell blocks, and particularly troublesome prisoners can even be individually isolated.
As a resident of Palm Desert, CA, I have been calling for this for years. The desert between Indio and Blythe along the I10 corredor is vacant. You could locate a prison halfway between these two communities and 10 miles north or south of the interstate.
The prisoners would live in non-airconditioned tents surrounded by three barbed wire fences and lots of sensing devices. Their job each day would be to move sand from Point A to Point B. Then reverse the process the following day. No TV, no workout equipment, and plain food.
I will bet that very few would ever want to come back again, and the state would save a bundle in the cost of housing prisoners. But we will never see the day because the bleeding hearts in state government would never allow it.
LOL. Well parts of the old industrial areas already look like a war zone.
Well she said we were going to be "blown away" after her administration.
She is correct.
Inmates who are illegals and are serving time for non-violent crimes should be released to their country of citizenship immediately.
Inmates who have non-violent offenses should be released based upon a fine and payment schedule; paying money to the victim and the state for parole supervision.
Correctional peace officers retirement should return to the pre 2000 formula. No 3.0 per year at age 50.
Public employee unions should be prohibited from contributing to those who negotiate, approve, or vote on their pay, benefits, and job conditions.
The department of corrections can greatly reduce overtime by using hundreds of part-time or new full-time employees. Accelerate hiring. A veteran officer working overtime gets 150% of top pay. A new employee gets 125% of base pay including benefits.
Inmates who have money in their accounts should be charged a $15 co-pay for sick call and medical treatment.
An additional existing prison should be dedicated to maximum security and more until the inmates who want to program and not act out are together in whatever number of prisons needed to keep them separate from the idiots and fools. Such prisons should be integrated.
Please submit additional departments for similar comments.
You cannot house long-term prison inmates in the same conditions as short-term jail prisoners. Regardless of the legal issues of cruel and unusual, you have a long record of prison riots in this country with conditions being the major factor.
Plus it could help feed the wildlife in the area for those who try to escape ... a win-win for everyone. PETA would be proud.
Bwahahaha.
I guess it’s like having attractive actors playing historical figures.
House them in the Whitehouse along with “Mack Daddy” and his merry band of thieves and liars, that way they will be in equal company.
Now, a private entrepreneur could buy the prisons, Standish and Muskegon, that the State is closing and open them with non-union employees and bid for the business to house prisoners from California and other States.
The union in Cal has bribed the legislature for 19 years and every governor until now, to keep out private prisons. The private prisons in Cal house federal prisoners only, no state prisoners.
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