Tuesday, May 13, 2008
SOUTH CAROLINA PRISONS EXPECTED TO OVERSPEND BY $4.3 MILLION
The Post and Courier reveals, "Despite a frugal daily diet of $1.43 worth of macaroni, rice, turkey parts and organ meat for each of its 23,977 prisoners, the state Department of Corrections can't pay its bills and the agency is considering closing some facilities. The department expects to overspend by $4.3 million in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30." Read the entire article, including reader comments, at Prisons expected to overspend by $4.3 M.
The comments are pretty heated. For example, ColdBeer comes down pretty hard on SCGal, perhaps unfairly. The fact is that our incarceration rate is, and has been, higher than any of the other “first world” countries for some period of time—we have both been getting "tough on crime" and "fighting the drug war" for over thirty years. And while we have seen drops in violent crime rates, we have seen rises in petty crimes. More important, at the rate we are going, those who are not in prison will eventually have no discretionary funds because they will have to spend everything on building more jails.
We understand the frustrations of the populace with our prison system. But, the "solutions" being advanced by many of the hardliners are not workable in the United States because of our Constitution and the prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. The will have to move either to China, Iraq, or Guantanamo Bay to get what they want.
