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NAM Round Table
The NAM Round Table consists of news, insights, visions, ramblings and rants from the writers at New America Media.
[ filed under: california politics ] The once and hope-to-be future governor of California, Jerry Brown (currently the state’s Attorney General) is petitioning federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson to return prison health care to the state’s control. In 2005, when the judge stepped in and ordered a Federal Receiver to take control, health care delivery in the state prison system was so far below constitutional standards demanded by the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, that at least one prisoner a week was dying, unnecessarily, of neglect and maltreatment, according to the court. Now, Brown is asking the federal court to end the Receiver’s oversight, accusing the judge’s representative of becoming his “own autonomous government outside the normal checks and balances of state and federal law.” His words echo those of another Democrat, Alabama governor George Wallace, who, nearly fifty years ago, tried to block the order of the federal courts to integrate the University of Alabama. Using the exact same two-word phrase, both have now advanced the argument that federal intrusion violates “state sovereignty.” The irony of this political grandstand is that the intolerable conditions that describe California’s prison medical services have come at the end of a thirty-year period of prison expansion and neglect by governors and legislators alike, led by Brown himself. It was Brown who laid the eggs that now are full-grown chickens coming home to roost. As governor (1975-1983), he championed the end of “indeterminate sentencing,” a system allowing prisoners to shorten their sentences if they improve themselves through education and other positive programs. In 1977, the state replaced this sentencing structure with “determinate sentencing” which requires prisoners to serve their full terms, despite whatever efforts they make at rehabilitation. (Not long after this change, the legislature eliminated rehabilitation and treatment as goals of the prison system, redefining its purpose solely as punishment.) There followed a glut of new laws increasing mandatory sentencing, leading finally to the most draconian “three strikes” law in the country in 1994. At the end of 1977, the year that Brown set this destructive process in motion, the state’s prison population stood at just below 20,000. Today, it exceeds 170,000 — a staggering 750% increase! Shortly after he left the governor’s office — and years before I became the first director of the Death Penalty Information Center — I found myself in the unlikely circumstance of being at the same party with the former governor. Eagerly, I approached the man who had been so vilified by Republicans for his very public opposition to the death penalty. “Governor,” I asked, “as an abolitionist, what would you advise someone like me as the best course to end the death penalty in this state?” “Forget it!” he said, as he turned and walked away. What he meant, of course, is that his political ambitions had led him to forget it — principle sacrificed on the altar of expediency. (As Attorney General, he has been as ardent a defender of death sentences as any of his predecessors.) How we treat the sick and elderly — even those we have cast into our deepest dungeons — is a measure of who we are as a people. Jerry Brown’s willingness to sacrifice principle for his own advancement is a measure of who he is as a person. -Michael A. Kroll comments |
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This is one of the most analogy-ridden (eggs, roosting, full grown chickens, etc etc. and one of the most poorly written articles I have ever read.
You dislike Jerry Brown why? Not completely clear as your article did not include many or any facts. Who; What; Where; etc-remember those basic necessary ingredients?
You may have an actual point but it is too muddled and lacking clarity- will google to see what this “might” mean?
By nativessayno · Posted on Jan 30, 01:56 PMDid anyone see the article, try Google, on the $266,000 in fines levied against the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo for dumping more pollution into the water there? The pattern of non compliance with the State’s own laws is costing us multi-millions of dollars. We need to demand a full audit of what Jerry Brown is costing us by not prosecuting those who are breaking the laws and participating in state murder by medical neglect. We need to see all the expenses for more than 50 attorneys, buildings, secretaries, filing fees, travel, that we are paying out because our Attorney General and Governor will not uphold the state or federal laws. We also need to see the death toll, the wrongful death lawsuit payouts (which the people deserve), the cost of this mismanagement must be in the billions of dollars. It is hidden across several budgets and the media is not allowed to interview specific inmates.
By 1union1 · Posted on Jan 31, 12:36 PMOn the contrary, I congratulate you on a fine article that exposes Jerry Brown for the unscrupulous opportunist that he is. I will never vote for him again. He can’t be trusted.
Anyone who has the slightest acquaintance with California’s prison system can tell you that it is a human rights horror story worthy of some third world country, not a people who hold themselves out as an example to the rest of the world. Watch this and tell me you are not ashamed. (California is toward the end.)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm
By Daniel Zuma · Posted on Jan 31, 03:24 PMRally date to end prisoner murder by medical neglect, and get the mentally ill into hospitals has changed to Tues Feb 3, Fed Courthouse, 450 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco at 9 am sharp, meet by the flagpole. Then we’ll go up to Judge Thelton Henderson’s courtroom on the 19th floor. Important to be on time. Court has changed date to Feb 3. Bart comes within 3 blocks, take the civic center exit, Parking Underground on McAllister Street. Bring people, the inmates are being forced to drink poison water at many CA prisons. Part of their sentence was not to give them cancer.
By 1union1 · Posted on Jan 31, 07:50 PMIsn’t it a shame when a politican such as Jerry Brown would probably sacrafice his own mother for political advancement. Now he wants Federal Rec3iver, Kelso fired. Who will be next on his hit list. The State of California has done nothing they promised the courts they would do to bring prison healthcare up to constitutional standards. Maybe A.G. Moonbeam, aka Jerry Brown should be fired insted of Receiver, Kelso.
By Nora Weber · Posted on Jan 31, 07:55 PMYou made a good point about politicians’ willingness to sacrifice principle for their own ambitions. So many politicians start out idealistic, but end up conforming to the positions that they feel are most politically expedient.
By Dennise Burgess · Posted on Feb 1, 02:55 PMThe only lack of “checks and balances” in the prison system are the CDCr and the guards. There needs to be an outside receiver to investigate and oversee the prison system to ensure that the misconduct, lies, etc. come to an end. Mr. Kelso IS the checks and balances for the neglected medical care of the state prisoners. If the receiver were to be taken out of the picture, inmates would once again suffer unconstitutional lack of medical and dental care. This should not ever be allowed again. Kelso’s huge plans are the necessary steps to heal the damage that decades of unlawful medical neglect have caused. Inmates have been maimed, paralyzed, etc. due to the medical neglect. The harsh new laws have created a very old prison population. So this is the only way to fix the problem. It’s the price of decades of torture/neglect and insane new sentencing laws.
By natascha · Posted on Feb 1, 04:47 PMWhat authority does California Attorney General Jerry Brown have to challenge US Circuit Judge Thelton Henderson’s appointment of a receiver? How can Henderson defend his receiver? Does Brown contend that Kelso, specifically, is doing a worthless job? Does Brown believe that prisoners in California facilities don’t need or deserve more or better health care? That any receiver is too expensive for California to be able to afford? Beyond his contention that any Henderson appointment challenges the rights of the state of California, what are Brown’s objections to a receiver improving and overseeing California’s prisoners’ medical treatment? Do you know if Brown has read the many reports regarding the current hideous state of medical care in California penal institutions? How can he possibly justify a continuation of such treatment? Does Brown think that the California electorate will appreciate his challenging the necessity of Henderson’s appointment of a receiver, because it secretly believes prisoners don’t deserve care, especially free care the taxpayer pays for, because inmates should not be treated, or be treated only minimally, when they’re ill or wounded—that, really, they should just die? Brown is sick at heart. He’s rated by the SF Chron as having a 2-1 chance of winning the governorship in the next election. Pity any poor prisoners under his aegis.
By Pauline Craig · Posted on Feb 4, 08:23 PM