San Quentin; Prison or Secluded Get away

How much would you pay for a piece of property by the sea? How much would it cost to just rent a room with a ocean view? In most states that border an ocean it's very expensive to own a piece of land by the sea. In California it’s even more expensive to own this realty. San Quentin State Prison in California occupies 432 Acres; valuable land that sold to private buyers could fetch millions just for one acre. The prison holds valuable cargo that wakes up every morning to an ocean breeze and the smell of the Pacific. Twice a week the shots and hollers of a rousing game of baseball can be heard from the prison grounds, while the Drama club puts on a performance of Waiting for Godot.

Not to say there isn't a population of San Quentin that isn't allowed the leisure that others are. Those that are violent troublemakers or those that are known to be dangerous are not allowed to frolic amongst the general population.

San Quentin was originally designed to house a little over three thousand prisoners. It's current numbers are in the five thousand range, making the housing situation difficult on even the most pacified prisoner.

War on Drugs

If you look at the majority of crimes committed in the United States you would see that nearly fifty percent of people incarcerated are nonviolent drug offenders. The government is spending five hundred dollars a second on the war on drug. To date the American tax payers have spent One Trillion dollars on the failed campaign, and drugs still remain cheap and plentiful.

In the 2009 to 2010 year, NH spent around 2.5 million dollars on Public education. On the flip side they spent 23 million dollars on the prevention and education of drugs. Added the cost to imprison drug offenders, our focus on drugs hurts children and causes more drug users by not supplying adequate schools. We could double the after school programs, add teachers and renovate schools if we looked at drug use in a realistic way.

Releasing the drug offenders to parole with monitoring devices that they have to pay for could add to revenue. They are taxable and there for more valuable out then in.

My stand point on illicit drugs is that they are not good. By the nature of drugs and how they suppress emotion and feelings make parents unavailable in ways children need. They have contributed too many violent crimes indirectly.

The Cost of Justice

The cost of maintaining prisons is one thing but what about the Justice System used to convict criminals. Americans look on the system of justice with reverence touting it as the best in the world. It runs under the pretense of Innocent until Proven Guilty.

When becoming a Judge someone always think they are going to be trying high profile cases and saving the world. Most Judges are doing custody battles, domestic violence, car accidents and small claims. They see the same people day in and day out; the names change but the actions and attitudes remain the same. I don't believe a judge in this situation could ever stop profiling and becoming ever more downcast by the system and its citizens. A breeding ground for resent and anger they begin to look at everyone as a criminal. Everyone becomes another troublemaker looking to bilk the other guy out of money.

Mishandled Evidence and Wrongful Convictions

How often does the System get it wrong? The police are not infallible they make mistakes with evidence. Mishandled and misplaced it’s often that evidence has to be thrown out never to be used to prosecute. It’s an exciting line of work and the overzealous officers make mistakes and with so many people walking around a crime scene it’s hard not to ruin evidence or disturb the area. About Two hundred thousand people in jail may be in there while never actually committing a crime. In my opinion even one going to jail for nothing is reason to revisit how our system works.



Lawyers add a dimension to the system that could be the decision between freedom and jail. They could draw out trails for years with appeals. The longer it goes on the more money they make. Americans do not look on lawyers with reverence but as a sort of leech who grabs hold and starts sucking. They are highly paid to argue and always think they are right. If you have enough money you can hire the best lawyer to get yourself out of any trouble. If you are a young black kid from a downtrodden family you get stuck with a public defender that could care less about your freedom you'll likely go to jail. The public defender could try his hardest but he sees maybe a hundred cases a day and has no time to look over yours.

The System is very flawed.

Lie Detectors

With such failure and costs sky rocketing into the stratosphere the American people should be looking for a much simpler and reliable way to prosecute criminals.

Polygraphs have been used for years to detect lies and truth. Current devices are near at 100% percent accuracy. Critics who usually do not understand how the device works and all ready have their minds set that these devices are easy to fool put them in the 70% area of reliability.

The area of turmoil is really in the area of the examiner who could be inexperienced and be reading the data wrong. A doctor could look at an X-ray and see nothing and another doctor could see a problem. The cost of multiple testing and examiners has to be far less then a court battle, and could narrow the error margin.

There have also been steps into the realm of Functional MRI's to detect lies by monitoring brain functions during the test. It's creators put the device at a 90% accurate range. The cost is fie thousand dollars for a screening. That is still lower then the courts.

If these two tests were done and they showed that someone was a liar overwhelmingly would anyone dispute the findings? I think they would because its technology and everyone is afraid of it being used in this fashion. We hold our grasp on a system that has sent people to jail for doing nothing.

What if the devices were right though? Wouldn't hundreds of thousands of people be out of work, from lawyers, judges and bailiffs? No more need for jurors or large beautiful buildings to house it all in. We would still need some judges to prescribe some punishment and guards in place. I can't tell if this is a good idea or a bad idea. 

My Court Experience

In 2001, I watched my car get hit by a driver in a large old style pick up truck. He tried to flee the scene but left the truck behind. The police pulled the plate number and took all information and statements from everyone who witnessed it. I even was able to take a picture of the truck and it's driver. You would think the case was simple and me trying to get restitution for my vehicle would be simple. I brought all the receipts for work done on the vehicle and items purchased for the car with me to the trail. The criminal who hit my car started lying to the judge that he saw the car and the tires were worn and it was rusted out and he didn't want to pay the full book value. That's when the judge started looking at me like I was some sort of extortionist who frequently parks his car on the side of the road waiting for someone to destroy it. I easily produced all the receipts for the tires and pictures of it before it was destroyed. The judge awarded me with the full amount and they set up a payment plan. I received Five hundred dollars in 10 years and when I questioned the New Hampshire courts they said they had no way of keeping track of the payments and they could do nothing.

So for many cases the Courts are a waste of time where you take time off from work just to be abused and never get satisfaction. Yet this court probably employs many people who and I'm not sure what they are doing, because they couldn't keep track of my money when the checks had to go through them. If you owed them fifty dollars in parking tickets they wouldn't hesitate to send a sheriff over to drag you out of your house in the morning.

Rehabilitation and Punishment

There's no doubt that prison is a form of punishment but for some its a place to get away from the troubles that got them there and a place to begin healing.

Rehabilitation is a key factor for inmates who will be released from prison. It is impossible to just punish someone and hope when they are released they will do the right things. Most people who are not rehabilitated will just fall back into their old habits and likely end up back in jail.

So when they are released it would be good that they have the necessary skills to cope with the outside world in new and different ways. Many prisons have programs for their inmates to help them cope with their release. They can get a GED; take classes on parenting, diversity and conflict resolution. There has to be a push toward rehabilitation over punishment. Since most of these people need a highly structured environment to keep them for doing what they would normally do, being a prison can be a good thing for those people.

There is no doubt that some people see everything as a offense against them and see everyone as a potential victim. They will lash out at anyone they see as an enemy, and they can't be allowed in the general population because they will instigate and rowel the other inmates. Or people who have been convicted of such Hannis crimes that their moment to moment actions can not be predicted and have to stay alone in a cell for their and everyone's safety. For them Prison should be a punishment and they should not be allowed to socialize and should always be held or dispatched with in ways that benefit society.