Posted by Ray Haynes at 12:00 am on Aug 06, 2007 Comments Off on A Different Way to Look at Prisons
Over the last two weeks, the state has been locked in a fight to
keep the bad guys in prison, over the insistence of several liberal
federal judges to let them go. Two months ago, the
Legislature approved a prison reform package in an attempt to
alleviate the so-called overcrowding problem, but to no
avail. Judges Henderson and Karlton decided to take over the
prison system, and run it their way.
Here’s a suggestion for the Governor, his staff and the
Department of Corrections. Tell the federal judges to go
pound sand in a particularly uncomfortable place.
Prisons are a unique state function. There are some
federal prisons, but, by and large, the corrections system is a
state function. More importantly, the federal government’s
intervention, through the courts, is constitutionally
dubious. While federal judges have tried to interfere in the
state operation of prison’s by way of the eighth amendment, the
argument that our current prison system constitutes cruel and
unusual punishment is absurd on its face. So, why not tell
the federal courts to get out of our prison administration
forever.
First, policy wise, it is a great… Read More