I would expet nothing less of Tom Green County.


http://news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=157598

Tom Green County mulls faith-based prison
3/18/2006 12:28 PM
By: Associated Press

SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Tom Green County commissioners gave extra preparation time Saturday to a group proposing a faith-based prison in San Angelo.

The new management team of Dallas-based Corrections Concepts asked for at least two months to prepare more detailed financial information on the project. The commissioners did not set a timetable.

Corrections Concepts was the only group to step forward when the county requested proposals for the 623-inmate prison. A management contract has not been voted on. The company's new chief executive Forrest Watson said the group needs time to reorganize.

County commissioner Richard Easingwood told the San Angelo Standard-Times that he wants to see hard numbers to support the prison's business plan.

The prison would house inmates who volunteer for the program in the final two years of their sentences.

Supporters say it could influence prisoners' lives through religion, and create jobs.

Opponents question the economic benefit and point to safety and water use concerns.


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I can think of 10 people who'd be all too willing to convert if it meant they could have a hot meal once a year.

I watched this doco called "Tranquility Bay" the other day, about a bunch of US private 'schools' run by WWASP, headed by a Mormon.

Just as well you lot didn't sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. That such depraved fucks can freely perpetrate acts of child abuse without legal recourse in prison camps masquerading as educational institutions... so glad it doesn't happen here. Anymore.

"safety and water use concerns"

They already have faith-based prisons everywhere. They're called churches.

I have an interesting thought about, perhaps it's a good idea.

We always hear about how many people 'find God' in prison. Perhaps, it's in our best interets to make sure they find Christianity.*

http://www.library.omc.ca/mtarchives/000073.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/congress/2003_h/030626_PR01819.htm
http://www.equip.org/free/JAP160.htm
http://www.fisiusa.org/fisi_News_items/news757.htm



* I realize this sounds prejudice, it was not intended that way. It's just reality.

I found a magazine at my school's University Union called "Marxist International Magazine" and almost all of the letters to the editor were from prison inmates. Apparently this type of garbage does quite well with inmates who go on and on complaining about prison conditions. It makes me wonder if they ever come to terms with the crimes they commited, or if they spend all their time pretending that they are the victims.

Marxist teachings definitely appeal to people who view themselves as victims, and it's probably easy to convince someone that their own horrible act is the fault of 'the ssytem' rather than their own choice.

I am willing to bet that the articles/letters in that magazine are pretty carefully screened so they don't contradict the party line.

A faith-based prison would seem to me to be the definition of government establishment of religion, volunteer inmates or not.

Some do, some don't. Either way, it doesn't change the fact that the overwhelming majority of prisons are horrendously fucked up, and it is easy for right wing asswads to pretend like there isn't such a problem when they haven't been near a prison in their entire life. It's the "if I close my eyes, the problem doesn't exist" approach. Highly intellectual.

Do inmates exaggerate? Sure. Many do. But when you talk to 5 different people, all of whom are in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, and all tell more or less the same stories of how cold their meals are, that they more than sometimes find maggots in their food, that their cells get unbearably hot in the summer etc. you can figure out what is and isn't exaggerated, and still realize that there's an issue here, and that it needs to be dealt with.

Part of the "correctional" system's goal is to, well, "correct", or rehabilitate. What kind of rehabilitation are these people getting in prison? That if and when you go out into the world, you are supposed to treat other human beings like dirt?

At that point, it is time for right wing asswads to complain about recidivism, and needing more police on the streets.