Interesting...

The other basketball coach and I pretty much see eye to eye on most everything. Today, we decided that society is going to hades in a manual cartage device because we have lowered the standards on pretty much everything in the name of "inclusion." You see, self-esteem and a sense of self-worth is much more valuable than the finished product, even if the recipient isn't at all marketble at the end of the journey!



One of the prisons not too far from here is being investigated because guards there were allegedly involved in the marketing of contraband to inmates for profit. Hmmmm....underpaid prison guards doing what they have to do to get by? What a shock! Well, there was a time when the Texas prison system wasn't overcrowded and it paid for itself lock, stock, and barrel! Guards were well-paid, too! Of course, that was before the Federal court system got involved and declared incarceration in a Texas prison unconstitutional because it was "cruel and unusual." Of course, "C&U" was forcing the inmates to grow all of their own food, maintain their own housing, make their own clothes, and produce most if not all of the state-used "public" goods (road signs, etc). The prison system sustained itself and the labor wasn't something to be looked forward to, so people didn't want to be in there! There! Two birds with one stone! No overcrowding and NO public expense to operate the prisons! What a concept!



That was then....this is now!

Now, Texas prisons are a huge drain on the state economy. Guards are paid much less than they deserve and taxpayers are supporting criminals instead of the other way around. Thanks, Feds!

I have an idea. Why not let Texas decide what's cruel and unusual in Texas! We'll let Massachussets do the same (of course, if they're to decide, there wouldn't be any prisons in Massachussets; we might hurt the criminal's feelings if we put them in jail!). Since prison isn't supposed to be a place that you want to be, I say let's go back to the "self-support" model and let the Federal Judiciary kiss our collective license plates!

Meanwhile, those kids with no marketable skills at graduation are going to do what THEY have to do to get by. They're going to sell drugs, or steal, or both. Maybe we should do something about the system of education BEFORE we do something about the prison system. Soon, they'll be one and the same!