BROKE PRISONS/BROKEN STATE 9/27/10

As the State of California fiddles with the budget, the state agencies burn. The prison system, which I'm familiar with, is in the worst shape in its 150 plus year history. Inmates are being denied critical medical care and medications-all in the name of cutting costs. Wake up Sacramento! The prison system is in ruins! I've written time after time and no one hears (or reads) but the time is now to do what the federal judges have directed the state to do-get the inmate population to 110,000. That's a no brainer cost cutter. It would save billions of dollars. Why won't the Sac pols do this??? As I said it's the Willie Horton effect. No politico can be or appear to be soft on crime, so the prisons bulge, while free people can't get child care or mental health care. The list goes on and on. The poor always suffer. Hell, most of the people in prison come from poor economic backgrounds. As long as it's the poor and disenfranchised who take the brunt of the budget cuts, hey, that's OK-most don't or can't vote anyway. The politicos use a Nazi-like calculus when cutting a state program. And the poor disproportionately lose out. Is it the way humans have always acted? I think it is and it's this type of backward thinking that will cause the poor to turn on the haves. The rich well-to-do are not stupid, but they historically seem blind to the reality of what is taking place around them. The reality is clear the state is broke and the moneyed don't seem to care. Oh, it's a small inconvenience at the DMV, but nothing else. Well, maybe a fee hike here and there. But schools; child care; food; shelter-not a problem. The disconnect is real and the suffering caused by it is real. I had a long discussion with my cellie about ego. Ego and pride actually. I say they blind a person or group to reality and cause a normally reasonable person to remain in a lost and unreasonable position. This is what is going on in Sacramento with regard to almost all things political. The result is gridlock, but they don't care. The Pols still get paid. And the have not's suffer. Wake Up! Cut the prison population! Restart the various prison rehabilitation programs! Fully fund child day care; mental health clinics; housing options for homeless families and people who are Vets, mentally or physically ill. This would help, as a start, both the inmates and the free poor. Please, something needs to be done before it's too late. As a Vet, I hate what my country is turning into. Let the pride go and do your jobs-all you Pols in Sacramento! Get To It! With love and respect, Veritas