By Just A Guy
Editors note: Just A Guy is an inmate in a California state prison. You can read some of his past columns here, here, and here. He will try to respond to all comments and questions, but since it’s often hard to communicate from prison, it may take a while, so be patient.
I was gratified to see that Arnold is, supposedly, laying off 3,665 correctional officers and correctional employees. While I don’t wish anything bad on the employees or their families, I do feel it’s about time something like this was done and it sets the stage for releases. Not only that, but people out there seem to forget that government shouldn’t be immune to the harsh realities of rough economic times. Any business worth its salt would have laid off lots of people long ago and eradicated redundancies, unproductive workers, and unproductive positions. A normal business that is run well also takes inventories, which, I really don’t think California does in any measure. California really needs a six sigma methodology, BAD. Ask Meg Whitman, she was the CEO of eBay and is planning to run for governor, Meg said she would lay off at least 30,000 workers. Hmmm.
This is from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Lance Corcoran, a spokesman for the prison guards’ union, said the union doesn’t know how many guards will be laid off. He blasted the inmate–release proposal.
“This short-term savings is going to have long-term costs, and the costs will be measured, unfortunately, in lives,” Corcoran said. “I anticipate some incredibly sensational crime committed by an individual that should have been incarcerated.”
I understand that it’s Corcoran’s job to ridicule anything the California Correctional Peace Officers Association sees as a threat to its ability to protect union members and their jobs, but I think it’s really funny that he’s saying that some sort of sensational crime will be the result of releases. Corcoran seems to think that the general public is so naïve (or are they?) as to not realize that any person being released is going to get out anyway!
The fact that a person was released early has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not he or she commits another crime, sensational or not. Obviously another scare tactic perpetuated by the CCPOA with no counter point to Corcoran’s assertion offered by the Chronicle — imagine that. (And why is it that the mainstream news media always seems to quote the CCPOA on prison issues — but rarely talks to, say, prisoners rights groups, or anyone else, for the other side of the story?)