From: jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 14:16:49 PDT
To: cactus@bb.com (L. Todd Masco)
Subject: Re: Government and Repression
In-Reply-To: <342mmc$8uv@bb.com>
Message-ID: <199408312115.OAA22404@netcom8.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


L. Todd Masco writes
> More to the point, the United States has the highest percentage of
>  its population in prisons (according to Amnesty International
>  statistics).  Enough to swing an election.

To put this proper perspective you should remember that the
US has the most pleasant prisons in the world.

In most of the world, indiscipline and bad behavior in the
prison will get you beaten, unofficially in Australia, officially
in Japan.  (Yes, *corporal punishment*, gasp, oh the horror).

In much of Africa they do not feed prisoners.  If your relatives
know where you are and care about you they feed you.  If they
do not, you starve.

The reason for this strange generosity is creative 
lawyering with the "cruel and unusual punishment 
provisions"  Remember that every time the prison 
authorities lose a "cruel and unusual punishment" 
case, their budget automatically increases.  Needless 
to say they have been industriously losing ever 
more absurd "cruel and unusual punishment" cases.



-- 
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We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we              James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.                jamesd@netcom.com