Just for you, Wharfie. Never let a serious crisis go to waste.
Coronavirus: Mass jail, prison releases leave some Bay Area inmates on the streets
I usually have praise for everything Gov. Newsom is doing these days, but this is an exception.
So he wanted to release prisoners, who are "mostly" non-violent (not 100%, mind you), because of the risk of coronavirus spreading in our crowded prison system.
So what happens? They come back into our society with no jobs. Halfway houses are closed. Homeless shelters are full, and the state can't construct more in an instant. (In fact, it usually takes them ten years.) They can't get driver's licenses or other forms of ID.
Even the services that remained opened are now flooded beyond their normal capacity. "If you would have told me six months ago that we would let 800 people out of our jail, that they’d just walk out of the door, I would have said you were crazy."
So why did Gov. Newsom do this? The answer: Social justice.
This particular move was never about the coronavirus. That's just the excuse. It would have been better to keep them in jail, assuming they still had some time left to serve, and isolate those who get sick in the first place.
And despite the crowded conditions, it's still possible IMO to enforce social distancing in jail. The inmates might have to tolerate less time outside their cells, but so what? It's a jail, not a dormitory. Having to sit in a jail cell is perhaps the best form of "shelter-in-place" that I could think of.
Yeah, this move wasn't well thought out. But leave it to us Californians to risk the health and the safety of the public just to release a few thousand inmates who of course "dindoo nuffin'" ...
Tenchusatsu |
