We should be resisting new prisons everywhere. Before we build more we need to find out who we've already got locked up and why (I don't really trust the ADC records...they didn't even know Marcia had a guardian and family). Surely we don't need to be imprisoning this many people. Maybe we can let loose a few dying and wheelchair-bound prisoners, and if a few key prosecutors would reopen some cases and exonerate the innocent, we could free up a few more beds...
Then we need to do something about sentencing - we are far too brutal on people in some parts of this state...Russ Pearce wants us all to be like that. As for me - I want us all to be more safe and well.
I keep forgetting that there's a serious lack of courage in this state - among people in power that is. They're afraid of the terminally ill, drug addicted grandmothers, and women who write bad checks. Oh - and those people who keep dying in the desert trying to reach their families or make a better life - they're a real scary bunch...
I have to say, I would not to raise my family in a town where mass incarceration was not only the norm, but a desired goal. Folks going down that road just seem to lack vision - they don't have enough creativity or faith in their people to believe that they will have no future if they don't build a prison.
That's pretty sad. Surely something more beautiful can be built that will attract people who want to be there instead of import human beings who are chained and caged there.
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Wickenburg Sun
January 27, 2010
Janet DelTufo, Assistant Editor
A proposed privately run prison project in Forepaugh remains a possibility, although talks between town officials and the prison operator have been quiet in recent weeks…
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