RSN Fundraising Banner
FB Share
Email This Page
add comment

writing for godot

Pennsylvania already spent 1.6 billion a year on prisons

Print
Written by Richard Kane   
Sunday, 09 June 2013 04:55
The number of people in prison kept going up but recently the Prison-Industrial-Compex began to level off with suddenly far less lengthy marijuana sentences and Three-Strikes-and-You-Are-Out convictions; but along came new efforts on gun control and now in Philadelphia Mayor Nutter is trying to pass Three-Strikes-and-You Are Out gun possession conviction putting the march toward America inching toward being a nation eventually of being mostly prisoners back on track. Closing schools and pubic services and opening prisons go hand in hand.
http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Reports/Performance/Special/speCorrections012611.pdf
http://decarceratepa.info/press/inquirer-letter-editor-re-proposed-mandatory-minimum-gun-possesion-philadelphia

I have a scary thought, instead of putting defense expenses and law enforcement expenditure as separate categories; let's call this one security expense and add into it what people privately spend on their own security. If we lump security expenses private and public together there is not much money or time to spend on anything else.

When the US and England argues gun laws gun purchasers skyrocket. In England they slowly went down again as the years went by with limited legal and illegal opportunity for Brits to get a gun.


There is some good news. Buy back gun programs work in lessening gun crime. When Australia banned automatic guns it included paying top dollar for the guns bought by the government there was a massive reduction in automatic gun attacks, that could have been similar to the Connecticut elementary school shootings and the Colorado Batman movie attacks. Another success is the graphic anti-smoking ads as lung cancer started to go down. In Wisconsin children of important families got mixed up with speed or meth resulting in graphic anti-methamphetamine commercials cutting meth use, which has spread throughout most of the rest of the country


A slightly different success is the seat-belt laws with more and more people starting to wear seat-belts.

Philadelphia is fixated over trying to ban guns, in the parks, and the state promises to fine Philadelphia if it does. Let's say there was only a $10 fine for a gun taking a gun park without a long-winded form justifying each park visit with a gun that became $100 if not paid in a week. Then even a ruffian, if a witness caught them, would pay the fine instead of threatening to rough up the witness if
the witness discovered the gun. And eventually grow tired of paying fines. Lets say the fine for driving while on the phone was lessened to $10 but strictly enforced for a change, or even monitoring phones for car movement with a $2 per minute fine or tax or if the violator preferred a detailed written justifying each phone use incident while driving.

Let's do something concrete to change our city and in the process our world somewhat. I urge various progressive organizations like the Green Party of Philadelphia and Philadelphia For Change to pass resolutions opposing Mayor Nutter's Three-Strikes & You're Out gun laws and pass resolutions welcoming the Prison Health Care & Reentry Summit at the Civic Center June 26,
http://decarceratepa.info/calendar/beyond-walls-11th-annual-prison-health-care-reentry-summit
The photos may be from last year,
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Philadelphia-FIGHT/80411861715?id=80411861715&sk=photos_stream


The good news is that America doesn’t have to be a nation of prisoners, while imprisoning or enforcing order on the world, until bankruptcy get's in the way.

If gentle pressure rather than throwing away the key takes over as a social change agent, America may not have to fall into bankruptcy and a dollar-less or dollars by the bushel world along with massive hunger like World War II Germany did as the doomsday predictors expect.

http://phillyimc.org/en/pennsylvania-already-spent-16-billion-year-prisons

RichardKanePA.blogspot.com
e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
Email This Page

 

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.

RSNRSN