Source: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=319249392216292
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, February 11, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Infrastructure: A panel of three unelected judges wants to release up to 57,000 prisoners to relieve overcrowding in California jails. Can't we just include prison construction in the stimulus package?
Read More: Judges & Courts
Think of them as medical clinics with bars. At least that's how U.S. District Court Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt thought of them when they ruled Tuesday the state must reduce its prison population by much as one-third.
According to these imprudent jurists, because of the overcrowding of California penal institutions "there are not enough clinical facilities or resources to accommodate inmates with medical or mental health needs at the level they require." Poor inmates.
In a 10-page decision, they said overcrowding increased the risk of infectious diseases and that a shortage of doctors, nurses and correctional officers has denied inmates access to needed medical services. There's no mention of the health care needs of their victims.
According to the judges, overcrowding in California prisons is the "primary cause" of the state's "inability to provide constitutionally adequate medical care and mental health care to its prisoners" and "there is no relief other than a prisoner release order that will remedy the unconstitutional prison conditions."
Now all of this may be true, but that does not justify ignoring the main functions of prisons. They are to punish criminals for their crimes and to ensure the health and safety of the general public by physically separating documented predators from their potential victims. If you need more prisons, build more.
Even California Attorney General Jerry Brown, no right-wing zealot he, labeled the order "a blunt instrument that does not recognize the imperatives of public safety, nor the challenges of incarcerating criminals, many of whom are deeply disturbed."
Little note has been made that much of California's prison crisis is due to the crimes committed by illegal aliens invited in through the sanctuary policies of its major cities and their policies of not letting local police notify immigration authorities when suspected illegals are apprehended.
FBI data show that over 95% of arrest warrants issued in Los Angeles for murder are for illegal aliens. Nearly 25% of the California prison population is composed of illegal aliens. Increased border and interior enforcement, coupled with expedited deportation, might help immeasurably.
Study after study has documented the benefits to public safety of increased incarceration rates. Crime rates plummet when incarceration rates rise because of the deterrent effect and because many criminals are repeat offenders who can no longer repeat their crimes.
James Q. Wilson, America's premier social scientist, says scholarly studies "have shown that states that sent a higher fraction of convicts to prison had lower rates of crime, even after controlling for all of the other ways — poverty, urbanization and the proportion of young men in the population — that the states differed. A high risk of punishment reduces crime. Deterrence works."
Prison is supposed to be an awful place you don't want to go to. If you want adequate health care, don't rob the local convenience store or club your neighbor over the head. Releasing uncomfortable prisoners increases the risk of crime and the social costs to society, jeopardizing the mental and physical health of crime victims.
A study published a few years ago in the University of Chicago's Journal of Law and Economics by economist David Anderson found a net loss of $1.1 trillion a year, or $4,118 per American, due to crime. Wouldn't building more prisons be cheaper?
Maybe California could take some of the vast sums being lost fighting global warming and funding fruitless embryonic stem cell research and use it to build new prisons.
Failing that, the state could use some of the funds promised in Congress' massive stimulus bill. Aside from the construction work, think of all the prison guards, staff, wardens and unemployed bleeding hearts who would find jobs.
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