Sunday, June 6, 2010

No money for schools or tax credits, but plenty for jails

This Norman Transcript article is sickening. Apparently the state has zilch for schools and has to roll back tax credits for historic preservation (which by the way, thank the lord we got a deferral instead of a moratorium) but apparently there is tons of money for new jails. Especially as we continue to put more and more Oklahomans behind bars for petty and minor offenses. Corrections truly must be a recession-proof industry and it's above criticism as well, because nobody besides me will attack the law enforcement establishment that has this state under their thumb.

The facts, according to the article:

-11 jails currently under construction or in planning, not including the $400 million (or more) jail that Oklahoma County wants to build
-State jail inspector calls the construction incredible, most he's ever seen at one time (he's been on the job since 1977)

1 comment:

pegasus said...

At some point the state of Oklahoma has to do something when it comes to the condition of the current jail facilities across the state. Finally throwing some money there way has been a long time coming.

I believe a better system would be to have them live in tent cities like the sheriff in Arizona does with his inmates and make them work for a living repaying the victims of their crimes and the state of Oklahoma for their vacation.

What would be wrong with these same criminals be afforded the opportunity to put hard work into clean ditches, parks, help rebuild/remodel old buildings in smaller communities back to a usefull state?

The time for the state and a level of creativity for dealing with overcrowded jail system has come.

If these folks do not want to follow the rules and take an easy way out of their jail time, throw them into "big mac" and let them deal with the real criminals.