Money and Justice

Yet another Grapes of Wrath Reference...

When I read this, the first thing I thought was..., well, I thought about the NPR story I had just heard on the news. The story was about undocumented workers and their cost to the California budget. The story says "Legislative Analyst Dan Carson says California now spends about $4.6 billion yearly to provide services for — or to incarcerate — illegal immigrants."

Also, there was a story from yesterday that says about California's budget problems that "The prison population has grown from 25,000 to 175,000 since the early 1990s, not because of an increase in crime, Sullivan says, but because of the "tough-on-crime, three-strikes-and-you're-out" laws. But the growing population isn't the only prison-related challenge facing the state."

But then I asked other questions...How did we deal with homelessness in the past? Those Hoovervilles of the past are now not in the country, they are in the city. Has there ever been a solution? Hoovervilles ended when people found jobs in munitions plants. But today, our Hoovervilles are not just filled with unemployed, but the unemployable. In the past families could take more care of the mentally ill. Population growth, and the new industrialization has misplaced so many of our fellow citizens. Housing seems to be the least we could offer, and save money in the process.

On the topic of criminalizing homelessness, there are already problems and pressures in the justice system. Do we really need to argue this is an economic issue? What value is there to framing the justice system issues, like the problems now that put innocent people in jail, into an economic framework? I think justice really is outside of an economic framework, but it is harder to argue with people how human beings should be valued than the economics of the situation. Well, not harder, but they are less likely to listen to the emotional argument. I wonder in the advocacy work being done for those in the system, what styles of talking about justice there are. And are the framings of the issues leading towards change?. I'm not familiar with a lot of it. I took "race, class, and gender' in college so I have some sociology of crime and punishment knowledge. What should I know if I am going to have a conversation with someone who supports 'tough on crime" or, I would say, who is afraid of being victimized...

And what role does the fear of victimization play in the attitude of people when they would oppose changes to the justice system?

I'm very curious and interested in what changes are being suggested and more of the details from law enforcement about how we got to where we are.

I'm familiar with Foucault's Birth of the Modern Prision on the history of how we culturally got to the modern system, but what were the small pieces of evidence (popular fokelore) that are pushing things as they are?

I also have friends who are very good about posting stories need to be told, but I've never found one that is compelling for me to repost...what is it about this in my own attitude/experience that has me not pushing toward a new culture more consciously.

My Blog, My rules, My questions. Something for me to chew on.

clipped from www.npr.org Urban Panning: The 10 Meanest Cities In America? Without further ado, the groups' Top 10 Meanest U.S. Cities are: 1. Los Angeles 2. St. Petersburg, Fla. 3. Orlando, Fla. 4. Atlanta 5. Gainesville, Fla. 6. Kalamazoo, Mich. 7. San Francisco 8. Honolulu 9. Bradenton, Fla. 10. Berkeley, Calif. It's tempting to look at other, less serious ways cities might be ranked among the most mean. Largest number of quick-changing yellow traffic lights, for instance. Or least garbage pickups per month. A great city, Aristotle said a while back, is not to be confused with a populous one. In other words: Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. Just make sure they don't huddle and mass in public places.