Monday, October 08, 2007
WHO BENEFITS FROM PRISONS?
Yesterday I got an education on the U.S. prison system from a member of the faculty of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. When he brought up the subject of U.S. prisons, and how a quarter of all the incarcerated people in the world are in them, I said that such a state of affairs couldn't exist in this country unless someone was getting rich off of it. So who was it--who was raking it in thanks to all the prisons? The John Jay guy pointed out one interesting fact about New York State; the prisons are upstate, and they're populated with prisoners mostly from the New York City area. Now, prisoners can't vote, but they DO count when the Federal government assesses populations for the purpose of representation--they are residents, even though they do not choose to be where they are. With tens of thousands of criminals in upstate jails, the congressional districts would have to be completely redrawn if the prisoners didn't count as residents. Neat trick, huh?
Yesterday I got an education on the U.S. prison system from a member of the faculty of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. When he brought up the subject of U.S. prisons, and how a quarter of all the incarcerated people in the world are in them, I said that such a state of affairs couldn't exist in this country unless someone was getting rich off of it. So who was it--who was raking it in thanks to all the prisons? The John Jay guy pointed out one interesting fact about New York State; the prisons are upstate, and they're populated with prisoners mostly from the New York City area. Now, prisoners can't vote, but they DO count when the Federal government assesses populations for the purpose of representation--they are residents, even though they do not choose to be where they are. With tens of thousands of criminals in upstate jails, the congressional districts would have to be completely redrawn if the prisoners didn't count as residents. Neat trick, huh?
# posted by toner_low @ 11:54 PM 
