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Showing posts with label Prison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prison. Show all posts
One explanation for Mexico's high crime rates: Prison really isn't prison

One explanation for Mexico's high crime rates: Prison really isn't prison

I suppose that I had some inkling of this, but it is a much bigger problem than I realized. From the BBC:

A surprise inspection in a prison in Mexico has revealed the presence of 19 prostitutes, 100 plasma televisions, two sacks of marijuana, and 100 cockerels for cock fighting.
The discovery in the prison in Acapulco came as police prepared to transfer the inmates to a maximum security jail.
The officers also found six female inmates living in the male section of the prison and two peacocks.
Mexican jails are notorious for overcrowding, corruption and rioting. . . .
In July, prisoners in a jail in Sonora state were found to be running a lottery to raffle off a luxury cell they'd equipped with a fridge, DVD player and air conditioning.
An inspector from the State Commission for the Defence of Human Rights, Hipolito Lugo Cortes, recently denounced conditions in five prisons in Guerrero state, among them the one in Acapulco.
He said inmates were running affairs at these penitentiaries according to their own laws and customs, with little or no control by prison authorities.
California's high costs of prison

California's high costs of prison

So why do you think that it costs almost three times more for prisoners in California than Texas? Do you think that it is the public employee unions in California? What incentive does it create for the Federal government to pay more for states that spend more?

The number of criminal aliens incarcerated in California rose to 102,795 in 2009, a 17 percent increase since 2003, federal auditors reported Thursday.

This isn't cheap. Nationwide, the Government Accountability Office reports, it costs well over $1.1 billion a year for states to imprison criminal aliens -- those who committed a crime after entering the United States illegally. California, moreover, is more expensive than other states. GAO auditors estimated California spends $34,000 to incarcerate a criminal alien for one year; in Texas, it's only $12,000.

The audit, requested by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, will provide ammunition for states' perennial effort to secure more federal reimbursement dollars. . . .
Rape in prison

Rape in prison

It looks like there are more rapes of males in prison than there are rapes of women outside of prison. See this study here, but remember you have to adjust the relative rates of attacks on men and women by their shares of the prison population.
"Missouri Tells Judges Cost of Sentences"

"Missouri Tells Judges Cost of Sentences"

This seems reasonable, but what other costs should the judges be told about? For example, if they are going to be told the cost of prison, shouldn't they also be told the expected loss of tax revenue from the person being imprisoned?

When judges here sentence convicted criminals, a new and unusual variable is available for them to consider: what a given punishment will cost the State of Missouri.

For someone convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, for instance, a judge might now learn that a three-year prison sentence would run more than $37,000 while probation would cost $6,770. A second-degree robber, a judge could be told, would carry a price tag of less than $9,000 for five years of intensive probation, but more than $50,000 for a comparable prison sentence and parole afterward. The bill for a murderer’s 30-year prison term: $504,690.

Legal experts say no other state systematically provides such information to judges, a practice put into effect here last month by the state’s sentencing advisory commission, an appointed board that offers guidance on criminal sentencing. . . .


For some reason I suspect that these are not the present discounted value of those costs. For the 30-year prison term, that is likely to make some difference.
California to reduce its prison population by 25 percent

California to reduce its prison population by 25 percent

The outcome of the judges' decision:

The three-judge panel gave the governor and lawmakers 45 days to present a plan to cut the inmate population from about 150,000 to 110,000 over two years. The judges delivered a stern message about conditions that are so poor in some prisons that they violate inmates' constitutional rights. . . .


So what do people think that a 25 percent drop in the prison population will have on crime?
May be prison is torture

May be prison is torture

I assume that criminals smoke at relatively high rates. Of course, this isn't going to save money for the state on health care costs. Smokers die relatively younger and when they do die, they die relatively quickly. From the AP:

Inmates in Nevada's prison system are preparing for life without cigarettes as they prepare for a smoking ban to take effect July 1.

The majority of other states already ban tobacco use in prisons. Nevada is joining them because of health care costs, cleanliness and a 2006 state law that bans smoking indoors.

But inmates won't get aids like gum and patches to help them quit, only instructional DVDs to tell them how to stop.

Prisons spokeswoman Susan Pardee says the department can't control how the products are used, so they're not allowing them. . . . .
80 percent of DC prisoners to be released from prison early?

80 percent of DC prisoners to be released from prison early?

From the Washington Times:

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty wants to help balance the District's recession-squeezed budget by allowing as many as 80 percent of the city's inmates to qualify for early release, borrowing a tactic that has stirred controversy elsewhere in the nation.

The city hopes to save $4.4 million in fiscal 2010 under the plan, which would reduce the prison population by 2 percent from its current daily average of 3,000 inmates. . . .


This seems like one sure way to increase crime in DC.
The tough life in prison: "Smuggled cellphones flourish in prisons"

The tough life in prison: "Smuggled cellphones flourish in prisons"

USA Today has this:

Thousands of illegal cellphones are being smuggled into prisons, where inmates, including some on death row, use them to threaten victims, conduct drug deals, plot escape and seek legal help, prison officials say.
The phones, most operating on prepaid accounts bought by relatives and friends, often are not caught in searches at visitor entries.

"States are struggling with this," says Eric Schultz, spokesman for the American Correctional Association.

In South Carolina, more than 1,000 phones were confiscated last year, corrections spokesman Josh Gelinas says. In McCormick, S.C., smugglers have used a makeshift launcher to shoot phones and drugs over 12-foot prison fences for inmates to pick up. . . .
"more young black men in prison than in college" -- False

"more young black men in prison than in college" -- False

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