Justice Kennedy on Prisons

[groovedaddy]

Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke out against excessive prison sentences this month in California, criticizing the state’s deeply misguided three-strikes law. It was a welcome message, delivered with unusual force. Much of the blame for the law, however, lies with the Supreme Court, which upheld it in a decision on which Justice Kennedy cast the deciding vote.

The overall tone of Justice Kennedy’s address to the Pepperdine University School of Law was “courtly and humorous,” according to The Los Angeles Times. He turned more serious, however, on the subject of incarceration. Sentences in the United States are eight times longer than those handed out in Europe, Justice Kennedy said. California has 185,000 people in prison at a cost of $32,500 each per year, he said. He urged voters and elected officials to compare taxpayer spending on prisons with spending on elementary education.

Justice Kennedy took special aim at the three-strikes law, which puts people behind bars for 25 years to life if they commit a third felony, even a nonviolent one. The law’s sponsor, he said, is the correctional officers’ union, “and that is sick.”

The criticism was on the mark. The state’s prison population has soared as a result of harsh sentencing laws and parole rules. California has been ordered by the courts to bring down the population of its prison system, which is badly overcrowded and unable to provide inmates with adequate medical care.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/opinion/16tue3.html?th&emc=th

[heli]

1. Case in point: Thief who put cheese in pants faces life sentence

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14374002

Thief who put cheese in pants faces life sentence
By Hudson Sangree
Sacramento Bee
Posted: 02/10/2010 11:28:32 AM PST

SACRAMENTO — A man who put cheese down his trousers faces a life sentence when he goes before a judge next month.

Jurors convicted Robert Preston Ferguson of two counts of petty theft on Jan. 6.

One conviction was for swiping a woman's wallet from a convenience store counter. The other was for stealing $3.99 worth of shredded cheese from the Nugget Market in Woodland,

Officers testified that Ferguson put the cheese in his pants and was apprehended in the parking lot...

[yurbud]

2. that sounds like les miserable or something...

[troubledamerican]

3. The same J. Kennedy who gave us the Citizens United "Legal Fascism" ruling last month?

Was it Rockefeller or Carnegie who threw handfuls of pennies to the street urchins to look good?

[happyslug]

6. Rockefeller

Carnegie was known for his libraries while BEFORE Rockefeller gave out dimes. Given that situation Rockefeller could NOT go that route so the dimes were given out. Please note this was suggested by one of the first Public Relations "experts" and thus a product of Madison Avenue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1787&dat=19280317&id=BpUcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LWQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5567,2783965

[tiptoe]

4. .

[Jkid]

5. The reason why the three strikes law is supported by the CO Union is to protect their jobs.

Without the law, they'll have to find real jobs.

[varkam]

Naturally. The problem is even more pronounced with prison privatization.

At least, arguably, the state doesn't run a prison as a profit farm. Not so with private companies.

[Name removed]

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