Prisons: Alexander Wants 50K Inmates Released

Stewart A. Alexander, 2006 Candidate

California Lieutenant Governor

Peace and Freedom Party

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency to reduce the over crowded conditions in California prisons; and under the governor’s proclamation 5,000 inmates will be transferred to other states. Stewart Alexander, with the Peace and Freedom Party, believes the governor’s actions will be negligible and will be costly to the State of California.

Privately operated prisons in four states, Arizona, Indiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee have already started negotiations to transfer up to 2,200 inmates. Other public and private prisons have expressed interest in housing California prisoners for three to five years.

Under the governor’s proclamation prisoners could be transferred within the next 30 days to these out of state prisons. Presently there are more than 172,000 inmates in California prisons and the governor must act now otherwise federal courts could order prisoners to be released early.

Alexander says Schwarzenegger’s plan is doomed to failure before the first prisoner is transferred out of state. “Under the governor’s plan eventually California will need prison space in all 50 states. The governor’s leadership is the byproduct of following the advice of party’s for special interest.”

Alexander is proposing to remove 50,000 inmates by March of 2007. Under Alexander’s plan 25,000 inmates would be removed by December 15, 2006 and another 25,000 inmates would be removed by the end of March 2007.

Inmates that have served a minimum of one year in state prison, that are none violent and have not been convicted of a sexual offence or an offense against a child, would be eligible for release to participate in a statewide public works program.

Participants would report to work up to four days weekly, up to 32 hours, maintaining freeway landscapes, state parks and wilderness areas. Participants would also be trained to fight fires; such as the recent California Day Fire that consumed more than 250 square miles.

Participants would be paid .00 hourly and would be restricted to residing with a relative to fulfill the sentence time required. Participants would be restricted to work, home or such restrictions as directed by the California Department of Corrections. CDC personnel would be responsible for daily supervision of all program participants. Also program participants would be monitored by GPS devices no later than June 2007.

Alexander said it is also necessary that the governor take emergency action and cut the gridlock in California courts. The governor needs to permit judges to hear pending cases and not to have attorneys managing our courts.

Under Schwarzenegger’s plan Alexander says California could pay up to ,000 annually to house and transport each inmate out of state and it will not solve California’s prison crisis.

For more information search the web for Stewart A. Alexander for California Lieutenant Governor.

http://www.salt-g.com

stewartalexander4paf@comcast.net

This writer is voting the Peace & Freedom party ticket but Stewart Alexander clearly thinks like a reformist capitalist, not a socialist, and Peace & Freedom Party is a socialist party. The minimum wage should be per hour; you cannot live decently on per hour. Firefighters, which you are asking uneducated, unskilled, often sick prisoners to be, make ,000 a year (/hour) in San Francisco, and professional firefighters receive all kinds of training and are athletes. Landscaping and other such physical labor must also be decently compensated. MOST PRISONERS CANNOT DO THIS KIND OF WORK AS THEY ARE PHYSICALLY DAMAGED FROM PRISONS AND POVERTY. Further, we want PRISONS ABOLISHED, as we support the Prison Abolition and Death Penalty Abolition Movement. We also oppose Global Monitoring Devices and all other police state promotions. These prisoners, for the most part, have nowhere to go, and want education, job training and medical care. PRISONERS ARE NOT SLAVE LABOR. We do not manage the capitalist state for the capitalist class, we offer alternatives to capitalism. It is quite feasible right now to shut down the prisons, pay people each at least per hour to go to school and/or work, pay for decent housing (most people do not have a relative who can take them in, and those that do, the relative should receive rent money), and pay for medical and dental care. This money can and must come from taxing the rich, also known as raising the progressive income tax on those who make over 0,000 a year. We have billionaires in California and lots of othe rich people, whose taxes have been cut by the Democrat-Republicans. As to the crime problem in general, everyone who actually committed the crime of which they should be accused should be required to undergo rehabilitation, including education and job training for a decent paying job, receive all needed medical and dental care and have a decent place to live, all paid for with our tax dollars. This should all be done in less than 5 years. The rich who actually committed a crime should pay a fine, and if it is on the order of a war crime, have all their wealth from all sources taken from them, leaving them the same income as the average worker receives. As to all prisoners, those over age 50 should receive a pension guaranteeing a decent home, full medical and dental care, and enough to live on, regardless of whether they were rich or not. The rich will have to live without all the luxuries they had; they will have to live as the workingclass lives. P&F's Crime Program on the platform is as follows and can be found at http://www.peaceandfreedom2006.org/issues:

Freedom, Justice and Crime

We call for the defense and extension of the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech, press, assembly and association, and the right to keep and bear arms for individual and collective defense. The ultimate guarantee of those rights is the organized strength of the working class.

Capitalism and poverty breed crime and repression. Working class people are the primary victims both of street crime and of police reaction to it. The bosses use laws against victimless activities, "legal" and illegal expansion of police powers, military and paramilitary occupation of poor and minority communities, and diversion of resources to police and jails, to keep workers intimidated and dependent. We demand:

Stop state-sponsored spying on and violence against progressive organizations.

Democratically-controlled police review boards with powers of subpoena and discipline.

Abolish the death penalty.

Repeal the Three Strikes law.

Stop trials and imprisonment of juveniles as adults.

Treatment of prisoners as human beings; rehabilitation, not vengeance.

Decriminalize victimless activities including drug use and consensual sex. Legalize marijuana. End the "war on drugs," which is primarily directed against poor and working-class people.

Stop unwarranted searches and seizures of persons and property. Restore constitutional rights.

Prosecute crimes of the wealthy and powerful against workers and the environment.

Freedom for all political prisoners.

See, it's a little more complex than that, skippy.

1. The vast majority of those incarcerated/arrested/convicted/involved in the prison industrial complex are Drug War prisoners. The so-called War on Drugs is a failed 'war' that will never be 'won'. It is proven--in mult. studies--that an interdiction/law enforcement approach to drugs is failed policy--as in the least effective in terms of outcomes and money spent.

2. Equating recidivism rate with ''rehabilitation' is not an accurate causal analysis of rehabilitation as recidivism happens--esp. in CA--for technical violations much of the time, not committing new crimes and therefore is a poor measurement.

Instead of being an irrelevant roll, try some research.

Incarcerated America

Yep, the drug laws are the new Jim Crow laws

Great link w/ good resources and info:

http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfm

Way to go Alexander!!!! Get the public to realize how disgustingly packed these prisons are. What does this tell you exactly? Does everyone really think that all of these people are guilty? I think not, as a matter of fact...I know not. My husband is one that has been wrongly convicted and sentenced to 10 years. Thanks for making yourself heard. You are really on the ball.