The Racine County Sheriff's Department said the following:
"11-25-09: At 1900 hours on the second floor of the Racine County Jail, Corrections Officers received an emergency alarm from one of the cells. The jail nurse was notified and she, along with the Corrections Officers, entered the cell and attempted to get a response from the inmate. The inmate was moved to the floor where CPR was started along with the use of an Automatic External Defibrilator.
"City of Racine Fire and Rescue responded and took over for jail personnel in attempting to revive the inmate. They worked on the inmate for a period of time and then they transported inmate to St. Mary's E.R. where efforts were continued until he was pronounced deceased at 2000 hours. Identity of the inmate is being withheld until next-of-kin can be located. The inmate was a 51-year-old Racine County resident."UPDATE: The dead man has been identified as Samuel Lee Wilson of Racine, who had been in the jail on a probation violation since Nov. 13.
Prior to this, the most recent inmate found dead at the jail was on Sept. 19, when officers were unable to revive Todd Anderson, 43. In May, a baby was born, and died, at the jail when 20-year-old inmate Melissa Woten gave birth prematurely.
As long as our society incarcerates and warehouses the poor, these tragedies will continue.
ReplyDeleteObviously 9:17 has never been a victim of crime or read the paper to learn about what the people in jail do to people. Talk to someone who as served on a murder jury to find out how these "poor" people treated their victims.
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about the person who died but there are some really bad people sitting in our jails and prisons that you don't want on the street. Don't try to make the people in jail into victims. The victims are the ones among us who try to function after they have become victims.
Yes, there ARE bad people in our jails. However, our incarceration-obsessed system also locks up low-income folks who can't pay traffic fines and unemployed parents who run afoul of our child support laws. Alas, the USA imprisons more of its people than any other developed post-industrial country. One reason for this is our mean, moralistic, holier-than-thou mentality--a nasty little legacy from the Puritans. Then there's our Transcendentalist belief that individuals are responsible for their problems. In this sad land, we still tell barefoot folks to pull themselves up by their non-existent bootstraps. When they resort to crime in order to survive, we snicker and send them to the pokey. Finally, there's the fiscal factor: here in America, jails and prisons are a thriving industry which generates jobs and moolah galore. Although SOME inmates are dangerous and deserve to be behind bars, many of them are paupers who wind up there for economic reasons. If you research decent countries which value people more than profits, you'll find very little incarceration. Canada, the European social democracies, Australia and New Zealand confine a much smaller percentage of their offenders than we do.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:46 has clearly never been close enough to the justice system to learn about the many inaccurate and inappropriate injustices that occur within that system on a daily basis. Talk to someone who has been jailed for a crime they didn't commit to find out just how "just" our system really is.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the specific Correctional Officers involved in this incident, but there are some Correctional Officers who would gladly look the other way when an incarcerated individual cries for help. Don't try to make the people in the Correctional System, or in our justice system overall, into pure and holy heroes. The only heroes in this story would be anyone who has a true and objective eye for the law, and attempts to rectify and hold our system accountable.
You are right...the bad guys are definitely the ones in prison/jail. Some of them are just wearing different uniforms than you presume. These are some from JUST Wisconsin:
ReplyDelete1. 2009 - Milwaukee Correctional Officer arrested for allegedly forcing two inmates to have sex with him.
2. 2009 - Another Milwaukee Correctional Officer charged with smuggling a cell phone into an inmate.
3. 2009 - Racine Correctional Officer charged with the sexual assault of two minor girls.
4. 2009 - Racine Correctional Officer pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy after joining a prison gang and smuggling porn, alcohol, tobacco and marijuana into the prison.
5. 2009 - Prairie Du Chien Correctional officer sentenced for sending money to an inmate - something restricted by his 2008 sentence in which he was charged with bribing inmates for sex.
6. 2009 - Two Oregon, WI female Correctional Officers were charged with Sexual Assault of an inmate.
7. 2008 - Chippewa Falls prison doctor (employed by the state) charged with six counts of sexual assault of inmates.
8. 2008 - Fond du Lac Correctional Officers charged with 17 counts of sexual assualt against 6 inmates.
9. 2008 - Portage Correctional Officer charged with second degree sexual assault of an inmate, which included smuggling items into the prison.
10. 2008 - Monroe County Correctional Officer and jail supervisor pleaded guilty to "misconduct in office" after admitting to having sexual contact with a mentally ill inmate.
When you see one roach...
ReplyDeleteA great Thanksgiving story - we can all be thankful there is one less criminal in society we have to worry about.
ReplyDelete1:36 You are disgusting.
ReplyDeleteThe jail we are holding the people who kill Americans on 911 is safer than Racine County Jail.
ReplyDeleteWe build a new jail 20 million warehouse to rid the taxpayers who foot the law suits these cost that are assocated with death in our county jail.
These death are the direct result of cutting cost and poor staff training.
The people found in jails and prisons have chosen to show a complete lack of regard and respect for society. Why should we provide the prisoners with things that most of us who do follows the laws cannot get (example: swine flu shots)?
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like the conditions in prison, don't do anything that would cause you to find yourself in a cell.
To all the wacky liberals that think prisons are unfair, why don't you "adopt a prisoner" and let them stay in your home? You can feed them, shelter them, put up with their antics all while you "rehab" them.
The people found in jails and prisons have chosen to show a complete lack of regard and respect for society. Why should we provide the prisoners with things that most of us who do follows the laws cannot get (example: swine flu shots)?
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like the conditions in prison, don't do anything that would cause you to find yourself in a cell.
To all the wacky liberals that think prisons are unfair, why don't you "adopt a prisoner" and let them stay in your home? You can feed them, shelter them, put up with their antics all while you "rehab" them.
In the 1980's Reagan closed most of the homes where the mentally ill lived and most of them went to live on the street to be forgotten. They can't take care of themselves and they are often imprisoned for doing what people who can't care for themselves do and did I mention that they are often ill. They are put into our prison industrial complex which is like our military industrial complex. I worked in a prison and I know why people are there, many for non violent crimes, people of color and mostly poor people who couldn't afford a defense and were at the mercy of the system. All is not what it seems. We can't lock everybody up, we better find a better way.
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:12 - your argument holds no substance. Everyone is provided a defense regardless of your income. They are called public defenders which are paid for the law abiding taxpayers.
ReplyDeletePrisons are a great place for mentally ill people. Anyone that commits a crime has mental illness of some sort. They are able to get the medication and need and are housed in a safe place where they cannot hurt themselves or others.
These are not innocent people and the proper process was followed for everyone in prison. Everyone there was put before their peers (jury) and found to be incapable of living their life in freedom for one reason or another.
I suspect your lack of knowledge concerning our justice system is why you are no longer employed by the correction system.
Dear 3:18 P.M.,I hope you never lose your money and wind up in the jug for an unpaid traffic fine. Our society locks up scads of people whose only crime is poverty. (This is a nasty little quirk we acquired from the Brits, who'd chuck people into jail for debts or petty theft. Although we obtained our political independence from Great Britain and its money-mad aristocracy, we have yet to reject the English elite's tendency to over-value wealth at the expense of downtrodden humanity.)
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you sandal wearing liberals just shut up!! You ALL sicken' me and my pocket book!!
ReplyDeleteDear 6:31, I never wore sandals in my entire life. As for being a liberal, I'm a libertarian. By the way, finding alternatives to incarceration would help you keep more of your hard-earned money. If you knew what it costs to confine and support inmates, you'd be demanding the end of our obsession with incarceration.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that in some jurisdictions, it costs more to keep a prisoner in the slammer than it would cost to send him/her to Harvard. While some convicts are dangerous and must be confined, many non-violent offenders could be sentenced to community service instead of the pokey. Thanks to the Brits (who got our country off to a bad start),we persist in locking up people who'd be in job training or community service programs if they were in a more progressive nation.
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:43 - If you can't afford a traffic fine what are you even doing driving a car? Is their car insured? Are they even paying their registration fees each year? Better yet, how about you drive and park according to the law so you don't even get a citation in the first place?
ReplyDeleteIn this sick society, many of our employers insist that prospective employees own and drive cars. So poor folks go out and buy beaters in order to tell the boss that they've met his requirement that they have their own transportation. Of course, by definition, beaters are bad vehicles and their drivers are sure to get tickets or fines. When folks can't pay the fines, they end up in jail. Unlike the rest of the developed post-industrial world, America continues to criminalize poverty. It's time that our nation grew up and stopped bullying its disadvantaged citizens.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to agree with the poster who mentioned the mentally ill who are incarcerated. I believe we have an obligation as a society to those who are unable to take care of themselves due to a mental or physical problem. They should be assisted in ways that allow them to function well within society - find work, volunteer, take care of themselves, etc. I don't know what the solution is, but it sure isn't to throw them in jail where they can't be productive.
ReplyDeleteOne reason that our culture has been so rotten to the poor is the Puritans' notion that poverty was a sign of God's displeasure. In addition, we still believe in lies which label America the "land of opportunity" and blame the poor for failing to prosper. Here in the USA, we're so naive that we think that anyone who isn't doing well economically has something wrong with him. (In Europe, where the workers are smarter than we are,folks know that individuals possess very little power and must not be held responsible for their plight. Over there, people blame the system instead of dumping on the less-fortunate members of society.)
ReplyDeleteBecause the British taught us to worship money and property during colonial days, we still lock up petty thieves and other non-violent offenders who are no serious threat to society. If we put minor property offenders in community service and restitution programs, a lot of senseless misery could be avoided.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, a teacher told me that Britain gave us four terrible legacies: indentured servitude, slavery, a rigid class system and capitalism. By the 1840's indentured servitude disappeared. The Civil War took care of slavery. However, we're still stuck with the rigid class system and capitalism. As long as they remain in this country, we'll continue to oppress the poor for the benefit of the elite and the upper-middle class conserva-twits. And because the rigid class system teaches us to despise and confine the poor, we'll persist in incarcerating our economically-challenged people.
ReplyDeleteOur ruthless form of capitalism wastes and destroys thousands of impoverished people. If we valued human beings in this country, we'd ditch the so-called free enterprise system, care for all of our citizens and incarcerate far fewer of them than we do today.
ReplyDelete" When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me."
ReplyDeleteThen the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, "When did we give you something to eat or drink? When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear or visit you while you were sick or in jail?"
The king will answer, "Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me."
Amen!
ReplyDeleteIt seem that most of these bloggers follow the teaching of "Rush Limbaugh" than our Lord.
ReplyDeleteI wonder does people feel the same about people who commits white collar crimes.
If one of your children was in jail on a minor charge and ended up dead, would you be concern why.
Go after Cory Mason, comments closed, go after cops and the justice system, attack away.
ReplyDeleteThe economic system--which exploits the poor and the working class for the sick fun and profit of the elite--is the culprit. In the name of free enterprise, the oligarchy forces the less-fortunate to scramble for pennies. When the pennies aren't there for the poor and they turn to crime to make a dime, our legal system (which serves the rich and their middle class lackeys exclusively) arrests and confines the disadvantaged. Because incarceration generates jobs and income, we lock up the poor and smugly blame them for their sad situation. If anyone deserves to be held culpable, it is our privileged class which smarmily claims that it creates wealth. In actuality, all the elite does is drain off and concentrate wealth in its greedy diamond-banded hands.
ReplyDeleteIt's sickening that we as a society confine petty offenders while the true criminals--the private sector privateers--run rampant and hog the wealth of our nation. Needed: officials who will pass laws capping and (if necessary) nationalizing the oligarchy's fortunes.
ReplyDeleteDear 8:33 P.M., You're right about not locking up the mentally ill. However, why should those poor souls have to work or volunteer? Most of them can barely survive from day to day. The idea that mentally-ill people have to be "productive" is like something from a novel by Charles Dickens. (Sad to say, this profit-driven anti-human mindset is all too prevalent in the USA because we have yet to chuck the Puritans and their work ethic in history's trashcan. No European believes that bunk. Over there, even normal, functioning people enjoy short workweeks and several weeks of paid vacation per year.)
ReplyDeleteUntil we get rid of the profit motive and learn to value people more than property, we'll continue to toss our poor in the clink. When you look carefully and see whom we incarcerate, you'll discover that we lock up scads of petty thieves, folks who can't pay fines, guys who failed to cough up child support checks on schedule and other non-violent offenders who pose little if any threat to the rest of us. Inasmuch as one multi-millionaire or billionaire corporate criminal can do more harm to society in five minutes than most of our non-violent cons combined, I think we should release the poor and confine the kleptoplutocrats.
ReplyDeleteBecause the rich thieves could never eat baloney sandwiches and do work detail, our judges would have to sentence them to house arrest. I can just see the CEOs adorning their fiberglass cattle with holiday lights and tinsel while the COs stand guard and chuckle.
ReplyDeleteSeriously speaking, any way you view it, the profit motive appeals to the worst parts of human nature. Thanks to capitalist propaganda which came over here in the colonial era, America has been locking up the wrong people while the real criminals have been getting away with murder. (When you look at all the wars started by the rich for fun and profit as well as the systematic neglect and abuse of prisoners, that's not too strong a statement.)
ReplyDeleteGood grief, what a bunch of crybabies! Capitalism is not the crime here, it’s the abuse of it. I agree that when vermin such as the Enron scum and the like get caught screwing the public that they should receive the most severe penalties available. But, this is not solely a capitalism issue. It is no different than a military or political dictator abusing their situations. And to put all entrepreneurs in the same class is the same as putting all poor people in the same class; it doesn’t work. There are the legitimate poor who need our help and there are the leeches that, criminally, defraud the government, the taxpayers and the legitimate poor that suffer because of what they steel from them. I have known many people throughout my life that are from middle and upper middle class families that have gone to jail for minor crimes. So don’t pretend that it’s only the poor who get convicted.
ReplyDeleteYou lefties might also consider not continuing to rewrite history to suit your lies. The Puritans were only a very small group that emigrated to this country. The vast majority of those that came here revolted over taxation without representation, not the justification of capitalism. You lefties paint petty thieves as victims of the justice system, but you don’t consider the people that they steal from. A crime is a crime and is punishable through the justice system. It doesn’t matter if it’s shoplifting or corporate white-collar crime, a crime is a crime and people need to be held responsible for their actions. How would you like to live in the Middle East where you can have a hand chopped off for stealing an apple because you were hungry? How would you like to live in Cuba where you can be jailed for the “crime” of voicing your own political opinion. If you look at these other countries that you say are so liberal and sensitive and then compare their population levels against that of the U.S., you won’t see that our numbers of incarcerated are any more disproportionate than theirs. What I do find appalling is that the black community is only about 20% of the nation's population, but is almost 80% of the nation's incarcerated. That's not the justice systems fault. If they hadn't committed the crimes, they wouldn't be in jail.
Fortunately, the days of the liberal bleeding hearts, socialists, fascists and communists that are trying to take over this country and making everything that is socially or morally wrong into acceptable values are numbered. You had better hope that the conservatives win in the next two upcoming elections, because if they don’t, there will be another Civil War in this country and you lefties will find out just how outnumbered and outgunned you are.
How about a win-win solution in which we'd combine the best features of socialism and capitalism? Several Western European democracies have such economic systems which work very well.
ReplyDeleteFor everyone's sake, let's work to prevent a rerun of the Civil War. What ever happened to our common sense and our ability to make mutually-beneficial compromises?
ReplyDeleteDear Graham, Although capitalism isn't a crime, its individualistic me-first mentality promotes criminal activity. For their own good and society's well-being, big buck buccaneers must be regulated by the government. Since one billionaire can inflict incalculable harm on humanity, every oligarch must be reined in and held accountable for his deeds. (As I write, an excessively wealthy clan with more dollars than sense is preparing to dedicate an architectural ego monument to the memory of its late patriarch. If one tenth of the fortune blown on that flubdub had been spent lifting Racine's low income residents out of poverty, we'd have fewer inmates in our county jail and a happier, more equitable community.)
ReplyDeleteOf course, spending more money will help. It seems to have helped alot over the last 40 or so years since we have created the welfare state.
ReplyDeletePlease explain how your method is different from all the others that have failed.
I am so bored with taxpayer money being thrown around under the guise of helping those in need when in fact it just creates another class of poor in our society dependent on said funds (because they know of no other way).
Don't we wish we had a genuine welfare state here in the USA! If we did, our crime and incarceration statistics would resemble those in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands and other decent nations which protect their people from poverty and the illicit activities which it spawns. Alas, in America we toss crumbs to the poor while leaving an obscenely unjust economic system intact for the exclusive benefit of the capitalist class. Then, when the less fortunate attempt to acquire the almighty dollar using methods which our propertied classes condemn, we lock up the poor and read them lectures about the work ethic and the non-existent joys of earning a buck the hard way. While our corporate criminals loot the system with immunity and impunity, we punish the poor for petty thievery or failure to disgorge a child support check on schedule. The sooner our government assumes its obligation to provide for all citizens (as governments do in the true welfare states of Europe), the less crime and incarceration there'll be in our nation.
ReplyDeleteWe expect far too much from disadvantaged individuals in this richman's system. Then, after the poor collapse under the burdens which capitalism inflicts on them, we confine them in institutions.However, the rich don't mind because some of them make fortunes from the corrections industry which also generates jobs for the middle class.
ReplyDeleteThe fella who loves northern Europe (but has never lived there) is back and touting their sunshine and lollipops socioeconomic systems. Check the numbers. Most if not all these countries social programs are failing or are predicted to fail soon. This is why they are migrating to the capitalist open market system. DUH! The number of people living off the govt is increasing very rapidly to a point of unsustainability. Let's not do that here. Our system is not perfect but it is the best.
ReplyDeleteActually, darned few rank-and-file Western Europeans relocate to our country. (Over there the workers are smart and know that free enterprise is a richman's scam.) When you do find Western Europeans who've acquired US citizenship, they're usually like a certain Case-New Holland executive and his wife who came from bourgeois families and moved here to avoid taxes. (By the way, the couple in question made sure their kids retained French citizenship so they could get free higher education and government health care. Although Monsieur and Madame X dodged their homeland's taxes, they still wanted their children to have the tax-funded benefits which France provides for its citizens.)
ReplyDeleteBack in my Catholic college years, the good Sisters and Fathers taught me that the common good was more important than an individual's ability to scam his fellowman and accumulate a fortune. Most Western and Central European nations agree with them. Even ultra-Protestant or secular Europeans see the common good as trumping individual greed. Consequently, European countries promote the greatest good of the greatest number. By and large, they do a superb job for their citizens, including their prisoners. On the whole, convicts and jail inmates are treated much better in Western and Central Europe than they are here. Over there, incidents of prisoner neglect or abuse are extremely rare.
ReplyDeleteAlthough enlightened European societies aren't all about "sunshine and lollipops," they do a better job of caring for ordinary people than our socio-economic system does. That's because Europeans are realists who know that rank-and-file folks shouldn't be held responsible for their misfortunes. (Two World Wars and the Holocaust taught Europeans that bad things beyond an individual's control could happen to good people. So the Europeans support social programs to help their citizens instead of hectoring them about self-reliance.)
ReplyDeleteYou missed what I said...they are failing and slowly migrating back to the free market system. Stop quoting dreams and opinions that writers from Berkeley and NM have published and look at the real facts. The Utopian socialist society is unsustainable.
ReplyDeleteI am not against caring for the disadvantaged, legitamately poor, mentally ill, etc. I am against against helping those that choose to put themselves into a bad position or collect our hard earned money through the government just because they can or are lazy.
Whether or not socialist economic systems are "sustainable" depends on one's perspective and priorities. If a person wants to make a profit and thinks that workers should put in sixty hour weeks to make the rich even wealthier than they are, then socialistic economic systems will seem unsustainable. However, if one's priority is the greatest good of the greatest number and profitability is secondary to human decency, then socialism is "sustainable."
ReplyDeleteThat depends on what the definition of is, is. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteThe question of sustainability or lack thereof hinges on how people look at themselves and society. If they believe in Horatio Alger fairy fibs and see capitalism as a positive force instead of the war of the rich against the rest of mankind, they won't like socialism. Also, if somebody taught them an egotistical philosophy of life and they crow about how overcoming obstacles supposedly made them into great people, they won't endorse a system which spares ordinary folks from the extraordinary stress which privileged plutocrats inflict on workers in the noxious name of profit. Then, again, if they're capable of seeing the misery which corporate capitalism dumps on the disadvantaged and want to protect the non-monied majority from the moolah mutts, they'll support socialism.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who wants to lift our people out of poverty and end our country's sick punitive practice of routinely incarcerating low income petty offenders should work to build a socialist America. As for the rich and their greedy little emulators, they can relocate in the Third World, where--alas--they'll be allowed to exploit the toilers for another generation. (Memo to monetary monarchists and treasure tyrants: when the Third World poor finally wise up and rise up against their capitalist oppressors, it may not be pretty. Historically, Third World countries have cultures which fail to value human life and do not understand the concept of a peaceful and orderly transition of power. Although the rich may reap obscene profits in those places for thirty more years, the Third World revolutions --once they erupt--could be ghastly.)
ReplyDeleteDear Graham, Why is anyone who doesn't like your beloved capitalism a "crybaby"? Victims of foreclosure, under-employment, poverty, poor health and a host of other capitalist by-products have legitimate reasons to complain. And why do we stigmatize protesters as whiners? Could it be that the rich don't want us to compare notes on our misery? Are they afraid that we may organize to change the system and elect men who'll nationalize some of the oligarchs' loot? Here in America we've been fools who've grinned while the rich oppressed us in the futile hope that if we were good sports about our pain, they'd toss us some nice crumbs. Meanwhile, the smart workers in Europe and other enlightened parts of the globe have whined and won their battle for economic security. When they look at our outrageous college tuition, our ruinously-expensive health care, our sixty hour work weeks, our extreme disparities in wealth and our horrendous incarceration rate, the progressive people on this planet laugh at us. No sane European, Canadian, Aussie or Kiwi toiler would tolerate that bunk for a second.
ReplyDeleteHoly brainwashing, Batman!
ReplyDelete"Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played by Hitler & Co. on those German capitalists and small businessmen who once backed National Socialism as a means of saving Germany's bourgeois economic structure from radicalism. The Nazi credo that the individual belongs to the state also applies to business. Some businesses have been confiscated outright, on other what amounts to a capital tax has been levied. Profits have been strictly controlled. Some idea of the increasing Governmental control and interference in business could be deduced from the fact that 80% of all building and 50% of all industrial orders in Germany originated last year with the Government. Hard-pressed for food- stuffs as well as funds, the Nazi regime has taken over large estates and in many instances collectivized agriculture, a procedure fundamentally similar to Russian Communism."
ReplyDelete(Source: Time Magazine; Jaunuary 2, 1939.)
And the capitalist pigs cleaned up after this fella's socialist dreams came to an end. Don't want to go there again. Too many innocent lives lost. Too much financial aid to rebuild after this (from capitalists I might add). Where would these happy Europeans be today without our blood and capitalism?
History, in so many instances, has shown socialism fails everyone. These are facts, not opinion.
Our so-called financial aid arrived in Europe because our wealthy class worried that post-WW II Europeans would support communism. That's why we had the Marshall Plan. Now we need a socialist plan to rebuild our nation's economy and free our wage slaves.
ReplyDeleteThat last opinion mentioned does not make sense.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying we didn't help Europe (so-called financial aid)?
Only the wealthy didn't want communism? Everything is not a conspiracy produced by the wealthy.
Again, and the last time, we do not want to use a failed method to fix what ails this country. We should work together to find a method that works for the long term and has proven to work. It is quite obvious socialism is not the answer. Do the math, look at history, use logic to determine a method. Don't use something that makes you feel good but doesn't work.
Please note socialism just converts wage slaves to government slaves. Nobody wins.
My pals in Europe don't see themselves as government slaves. On the contrary, they're glad they have regimes which serve them and care about their needs. Anyone who's got free health care, free to low-cost higher education and job training, adequate unemployment checks,a workweek capped at forty hours and several weeks of paid vacation each year is way ahead of most Americans. If you want to see slaves, visit most of our factories, offices and fast food places. There you'll find worn out and downtrodden toilers whose lack of economic security has rendered them servile as can be toward the almighty boss and his snooper-visory personnel. Getting back to our jails and bad conditions in them, America has a sick tradition of prisoner abuse which is especially evident in the South and our Western states. My Danish friends can't believe that a purportedly civilized state such as Texas has so many scandals involving the mistreatment of inmates. The same applies to most of the Sunbelt. Because those places were either slave states or territories settled by ex-Confederates after the Civil War, their old tradition of cruelty toward vulnerable people remains alive and sick.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the racism--you'd better be lily-white and loaded if you run afoul of the law in those states.
ReplyDeleteHeck--forget about breaking the law. You'd better be rich and white if you just want to live in one of those places!
ReplyDeleteAs bad as our jail may be, it looks almost decent alongside similar establishments in Texas. Even so, we ought to improve our jail and make sure that our inmates receive good medical care and kind treatment.
ReplyDeleteDear 3:25 P.M., Although it may seem strange to you, many Europeans DON'T resent paying what you'd call high taxes. In fact, some of them get upset when Americans make negative remarks about their system. If you can obtain a book by Michael Powell entitled "Behave Yourself!" you'll learn that the Danes dislike American visitors' comments on the touchy topic: "Avoid criticizing high Danish taxes; they've heard it all before and they are proud of the social welfare system and social infrastructure that these taxes provide." This quotation appears on page 35 of the 2005 edition.
ReplyDeleteIf we had a Danish-style social safety net here, our poor people wouldn't be driven to commit petty property offenses and we'd have far fewer inmates in our jails.
ReplyDeletehttp://mises.org/article.aspx?control=905
ReplyDeleteUntil we get rid of capitalism and help our disadvantaged people, poverty and crime will flourish in our country. In the meantime, we can find humane alternatives to incarceration for our non-violent offenders. This should prevent jail overcrowding and make it easier for our COs to take good care of the inmates.
ReplyDeleteAmen!
ReplyDeleteMost COs are decent people. If we didn't incarcerate so many non-violent offenders and thereby over burden our COs, they could do a better job of caring for the inmates.
ReplyDeleteThe trick is to find humane and just solutions to our problems. Usually, when we set aside our biases and drop our adversarial approach to life, we can come up with solutions which benefit everyone. (Some folks--including corporate motivational writers and speakers--call this concept the "win-win" approach. Let's use it early and often.)
ReplyDeleteHey - don't break the law and you will encounter any jail issues - it's as simple as that.
ReplyDeleteEven so, a decent society has humane jails and good COs.
ReplyDelete3:14 - Why, when you are dealing with inhumane people?
ReplyDeleteBecause cruelty and inhumanity are contagious. Once you've descended to the criminals' level, it's very difficult to regain lost moral ground. That's why good men soon turned into brutes subsequent to becoming chain gang guards and abusing the prisoners in obedience to their superiors' orders.
ReplyDeleteFor our own sakes and the well-being of society, we must neither harden our hearts nor coarsen our minds with cruelty.
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