STOPPING LAW SUITS OR SPEECH

On Monday the 11th of February Governor Brown of California gave a little speech in which the thrust of it was that prisoners from California are costing the tax-payers too much money.

However, what he failed (or any politician for this matter) to mention is that what's costing tax-payers too much money is the outrageous wages correctional officers receive while working in SHU/PSU/ASU compared to general population. A prisoner in GP would cost 58,324 per prisoner. In the SHU it's 70,641 (1). Although this staggering amount is the Pelican Bay Prison/SHU, the difference will only vary with other SHUs. What's not mentioned is why 2 officers are needed to escort 1 prisoner to dental, medical, etc. With budgets thin and prisons finding ways to save money, one is boggled why the administration doesn't lay off UNNECESSARY correctional officers? The hyperbole being spit out by Governor Brown is hogwash. The fact of the matter is that with a spark of prison activism and struggle for treatment that falls within constitutional means and calling for the end of SHUs, prison, legislative, tax-payers and concerned citizens should jump at the start to reduce the cost of prisons and reduce the end of sanctioned torture by means of solitary confinement.

What this is is a gag order being issued (trying) by the governor and his klan. Issues are now in the work on WHAT prisoners can sue over. Like prison officials would not take out what the man issues prisoners sue about and leave issues that have no relevancy. If this plan is pushed and enacted then this just goes to show that as the 13th amendment states "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as punishments for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" [emphasis added]. This gives proof that for prisoners, there is no right to freedom of speech let alone redress of grievance.

NOTES

1) Amnesty International "USA". The edge of endurance - prison conditions in CA SHUs.