Cowboy Attitude

Illegals. Aliens. Criminals. Prisoners. Drug addicts. All of them are scum of the earth, right? Let's lock 'em all up and throw away the key, or dump them in the ocean, or send them back to Mexico so that they're someone else's problem!

That cowboy attitude toward law enforcement has always bothered me--not just with respect to immigrants, who are a whole different story in my book, but with respect to criminals as well. It's the Wild West! Let's round 'em up and put 'em in the stockade. Throw the book at 'em! Better yet, make 'em do hard labor (last abolished on the state-level in 1927, according to Wikipedia, but apparently has never been declared unconstitutional under the 8th Amendment, though I have not actually searched on Westlaw)! They done wrong, so they gots to pay. WITH THEIR LIVES if possible. Death penalty (even for juveniles, up until Roper v. Simmons in 2004). Double life sentences for armed robbery. No parole! Et cetera.

Well, now the United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, and is also responsible for roughly 23.4% of the world's prison population. Of course, some might see these figures as a good thing, and argue that this is because we actually have a functional (haha) judicial system. Others might see it as a travesty, noting in particular the overwhelming racial disparities (according to Wikipedia, the breakdown as of 2008 was 60.21% (African American non-Hispanic), 20.29% Hispanic, 13.44% White American (non-Hispanic) , and 6.06% Other).

Whichever way you view these statistics, prisons eat up money. With recidivism rates at 67.5% within three years of being release from jail, supporting all these inmates means less money for schools, transportation, health care, and whatever else is in the state or federal budget. The Cowboys amongst us would, of course, say we should cut costs by denying prisoners medical care and slash their food and make them sleep on the floor and, again, put them to work. (Because, after all, they sold cocaine. Therefore they should die. Or suffer forever. They broke the law so they have no rights, right?) But for the rest of us who subscribe to humanity, even for those who have been found by The System to have wronged society, some standards must be kept.

So it is particularly refreshing when a sensible budget-slashing cost-saving proposal regarding prison reform comes from Newt Gingrich and another Republican. Well, it's not much of a proposal, but at least it's a call for reform and it's a step away from the Three Strikes Law / Tough on Crime party line. So I interpret that as a good thing. Of course, not locking up all the criminals forever is not popular with the Cowboy Americans. But it makes economic sense. So long as we are wary of the privatisation trend . . .

But instead what we see in the comments to the Gingrich editorial are things like:

* "Want to save money? Ever see the movie Cool Hand Luke? Treat prisoners like prisoners and put them out busting rock, digging ditches. Now we send them to the gym, TV lounge, private cells. Hell some of them never had it so good before they went to prison."
* "Road gangs and military barracks buildings, a la Cool Hand Luke, will suffice for most prisoners."
* "Road work, clean highways, shovel snow, pick up garbage, make license plates,farm work etc,etc,etc. In other words lower our taxes."

See? Cowboy.

* "What the G-Newt is trying to tell us, is exactly what the "Great Communicator" actually accomplished when he was Governor of California and later President. He released hundreds of thousands of patients from psychiatric hospitals first in California and later across the country in an effort to 'cut costs.' What has ended up happening, is that we have hundreds of thousands of homeless people who are mentally unstable, walking the streets, mumbling incoherently or throwing verbal insults and sometimes worse at common citizens simply trying to get to work."

Right, exactly. All homeless people should be thrown into prison so that they don't insult common citizens on our way to work. And, uh, if Newt Gingrich was President of the United States, this is the first I've heard of it...

* "There's other more common- sensical solutions to save money in both prisons and the general public. immediately deport all the illegal aliens from our prison systems. Borrow a few dozen USAF large cargo planes to keep it cheap and, without any deportation hearings, fly the illegals to their butts to their home nations and simply drop them off on the runway. If Mexico or Guatemala or El Salvdaor protest, tell them they 'either take their criminals back or we cut off their foreign aid.'"

Sigh. Yes, we should put them on a cargo plane because illegals, unlike human beings, are cargo. Illegals have no rights. We won't give them hearings because we'll know they're illegal if their skin is brown.

I know Internet commenters are usually the crazy ones, but . . . they really do drive me crazy.