“For Those Who Can’t Come Home”
D.A. Ridgely on Mar 26th 2008
Okay, so deep down inside I also think this is funny as hell and, yeah, I came across it on one of those weird news aggregators.
Except it’s not funny.
Herewith, a niche market: a greeting card line for prisoners.
For example, just like the nephews whom you feel guilted into slipping a few bucks into a cash card for when the family gets together for Christmas, now you can send your imprisoned friend or loved one a “Money On Your Books” card reading “I just wanted to tell you that I put some money on your books. Take care.”
For the record, I have absolutely no problem with incarcerating violent and dangerous criminals and I laugh out loud every time I read some asinine story in the New York Times or Washington Post bemoaning the ‘inexplicable’ fact that the prison population is at an all-time high “even though” the crime rate is down.
But a vast percentage of the U.S. prison population is there solely because of our absurd, idiotic, obscenely, nay, astronomically expensive and absolutely doomed to perpetual failure “War On Drugs.”
This is a product that shouldn’t be needed for a market that shouldn’t exist.
Filed in The Bench, The Bureau
education, not prison, is the answer for the “drug war” ;)
Whaddayamean? We can’t put Bill Bennett in prison? Because I don’t think any amount of education is going to turn him into a not-drug-warrior.
“I have absolutely no problem with incarcerating violent and dangerous criminals”. I do! Justice (IMO) is not in punishing the wrongdoer, but in making the victim whole. If the violent and dangerous criminal needs to be sold into slavery, that’s fine by me. Just don’t double victimize the victim by making him/her pay for the criminals housing, food, and entertainment.
[...] Those are serious collateral costs to get tough on crime plans. When the crime involves harm to another person, the costs are probably justified, though I bet they are rarely counted by those imposing them. What I’d like to know, though, is how many of these kids are missing family members because of what another blogger calls: our absurd, idiotic, obscenely, nay, astronomically expensive and absolutely doomed to perpetual failure “War On Drugs.” [...]