Fyodor Dostoevsky

In Birmingham THEY loved the governor

Well we all did what we could do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8rnFKo4PAE

Newly-elected Georgia Governor Nathan Deal (R) announced Monday in his inaugural address that putting drug addicts and abusers in jail was placing an unsustainable financial and civic burden on his state.

Here are his comments about drug enforcement, from The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

For violent and repeat offenders, we will make you pay for your crimes. For other offenders who want to change their lives, we will provide the opportunity to do so with Day Reporting Centers, Drug, DUI and Mental Health Courts and expanded probation and treatment options. As a State, we cannot afford to have so many of our citizens waste their lives because of addictions. It is draining our State Treasury and depleting our workforce.

According to a 2009 Office of National Drug Control Policy report, approximately 17% of Georgia's 53,268 prisoners had drug-related offenses listed as their primary offense. Approximately 21% of the active inmate population of the Georgia Department of Corrections also reported a drug abuse problem as of September 2009.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/nathan-deal-drug-addicts-jail_n_807016.html

Lynyrd Skynyrd was singing about Alabama of course, attempting to defend their homeland from the likes of Neil Young.

But damn, I tell ya for a Georgia Governor to announce that he wants to ‘free’ a large percentage of convicts from jails and prisons; I mean this is really remarkable.

Other states have reviewed this situation over the past few years.

ILLINOIS

Like many other states, the Illinois prison population has exploded, doubling since the 1980s to about 45,000, fueled in part by tough drug laws. In addition, more than 30,000 former inmates are currently on parole. Those inmates and parolees cost Illinois taxpayers more than $1 billion per year.

Benos says Illinois will save $5 million by releasing some prisoners early. The inmates will be equipped with monitoring devices and offered support in the form of treatment programs. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121338571

CALIFORNIA

OAKLAND -- In recent days, thousands of inmates have been let of jail because of a law that went into effect at the end of January.

Officials said the inmates being released are non-violent offenders.

Inmates exhibiting good behavior could accrue more credits for early release than under the previous guidelines.

Prisoners who've committed violent crimes or are deemed sexual predators are not eligbile.  http://www.ktvu.com/news/22482763/detail.html

It does cause additional stress to the deputies in the jail and then of course all the officers that are working on the street because if those go out and re-offend, well then the whole process starts again," said Sergeant J.D. Nelson with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

Alameda County officials said they released 100 inmates to comply with the law, even though their jail system is only 80-percent full.

Meanwhile, San Mateo County released 52 inmates but is 120-percent of capacity and Santa Clara County didn't release any inmates.

San Francisco has released 13 inmates so far.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/22482763/detail.html

OREGON

Prozanski, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, last year helped craft a law that lets some Oregon inmates trim as much as 30 percent from their sentences through expanded "earned-time credits," which are awarded to prisoners who finish coursework, gain work experience or otherwise work to improve their lives behind bars. Created to save the state money in extremely lean fiscal times, the law has moved up release dates for about 3,500 prisoners, including about 950 who have already been released from prison an average of 55 days ahead of schedule.

But a recent backlash over Oregon's law serves as a reminder of the political pitfalls that can accompany changes in criminal justice policy, particularly when those changes open prison doors earlier for some inmates. California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin are among the other states that have recently accelerated prisoner releases or are considering doing so.

Victims' advocates groups have attacked Oregon's law as a threat to public safety, airing a statewide radio ad that paints an ominous picture about the releases' effect on crime rates

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/nation/states-using-early-release-of-prisoners-to-save-money

Two sisters were just let out of prison after serving decades in prison for stealing 11 bucks. Of course there are detractors:

Advocacy groups like the NAACP believe strongly that the sentence these women received far outweighed the actual crime, since very little money was taken from robbery victims.  However, there are two things that stand out in my mind:

1. the women used a gun in the robbery(ies)
2. someone could have died because of the use of a gun
3. I did not read where any of these advocacy groups – including the NAACP – expressed any concern for the victim(s) in the case

Both women spent 16 years in jail, out of their full sentences of life in prison.  I don’t mind that the two women got out of jail.  Certainly, everyone should be given a second chance.  However, the concerns listed above seem to be absent from this case.  In fact, in the news stories I read prior to posting this, I did not see in any of them where the sisters expressed regret for their crime, or sympathy for the victim(s).  Yet, those within the Black community – and by the way, where was Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? – simply harped on how justice has not been served…for the sisters, believing their sentences were excessively harsh, based on the fact that such a paltry sum of money was gotten by the sisters.

The total sum of money is simply the luck of the draw for any criminal and they know that.  The sisters could have wound up hitting the jackpot by robbing someone who was very wealthy and by chance had a large amount of cash on him/her at the time.

http://studygrowknowblog.com/2011/01/07/two-sisters-released-from-jail/

The Scott sisters' attorney and advocacy groups have long cited $11 as the amount taken in the robbery, though there's been some dispute about exactly how much was stolen. The lower amount has been used to argue that the life sentences were excessive.

However, one of the victims in the case testified that he was robbed of about $200. A 14-year-old boy involved in the crime testified that his cut was between $9 and $11. Lumumba has said the $11 amount trumpeted by advocacy groups is based on the indictment, which says they stole "in excess of $10

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/07/sisters-share-kidney-released-prison/#ixzz1ArEm9mIn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gFoERNDBJA

Okay, eleven bucks or 211 bucks or…..

I mean, if this were some white suburbanites blowing up a mailbox or  two Eli’s putting on Nixon Masks as a prank and stealing a couple cartons of cigs with an unloaded weapon and the kids would have done six months in mommy’s basement.

Oh but somebody could have been killed.

I have personally seen situations where white boys had .18% alcohol in their blood after running into a tree with their cars, and they did not get life imprisonment because somebody could have died.

How many people lost all they owned per Wall Street bastardry and ended up dead within months from suicide or just plain despair? Those Wall Street bonus babies certainly could have predicted such mayhem.

I know that blaggarts like Jesse James and Billy the Kid and others in the Old West would be let off with warnings for shooting peeps. Ha

We have to reexamine our sentencing procedures.   

2.3 million folks in our prisons and another five million on parole or probation should give us pause.

And damn, I applaud the sentiments of the new Georgia Governor.

Oh and on another note I applaud Peter King, whom I have despised for decades. 

There have been some calls for stricter gun-control measures in the wake of the Arizona shooting, but this one might actually go somewhere: Republican Rep. Pete King from New York will introduce a bill seeking to make it illegal to carry a firearm within 1,000 feet of high-level federal officials, including members of Congress. Currently, federal law prohibits carrying a gun within 1,000 feet of a school; King wants to extend that rule to federal offices. It’s possible that the new GOP majority will still kill the bill, but it’s encouraging at least that it’s coming from one of its own members. http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/?cid=hp:cheatsheet8#cheatrow_23103

And one more time I would applaud a Republican, another Southern Republican for Chrissakes.

Following a flap over his defense of a Civil Rights-era segregationist group, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour used his final state-of-the-state address to encourage lawmakers to build a $50 million civil rights museum.

"This is the year to get this museum going," Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger reports Barbour said in his remarks last night. "This is the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders and the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War."

"The civil rights struggle is an important part of our history, and millions of people are interested in learning more about it," he continued. "People from around the world would flock to see the museum and learn about the movement."

Barbour, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, got slammed in the media last month for defending the segregationist Citizens Councils, which were formed in opposition to the civil rights movement after Brown v. Board of Education. He later apologized

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/haley-barbour-pushes-50m-civil-rights-museum-in-mississippi.php?ref=fpb

To be frank, fuck motivations. I don’t give a rip.

Oh they did it for this reason or they did it to line the pockets of contributors or they were attempting to not look so bad.

WHO IN THE FUCK CARES?

What Barbour is doing here is phenomenal.

What the Georgia Governor is doing is phenomenal.

And I must laud Peter King.

No heartburn here whatsoever!

Previous attempt at this @

hbs-without-heartburn/