Governor Guts State Services
Pigs at the State Trough
A Slow Saturday Special: Statehouse Slush Fund
Biotech Giveaway Was Borrowed Money
Massachusetts Residents Taken For a Ride
Slow Saturday Special: Day at the Movies
How many times I gotta put 'em up?
Yup, you could easily find a $100 million dollars for the prisons.
How about LEGALIZING DRUGS and CLEANING THAT WHOLE CROWD OUT, huh?
I thought this was a "liberal" state!
"Prisons facing $100m in cuts; Fiscal scenario may prompt closings, layoffs" by Jonathan Saltzman and Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | September 11, 2009
Under increasing financial pressure, the state’s prison system is weighing close to $100 million in budget cuts that could force widescale layoffs and the closure of several facilities at a time of growing fears over inmate overcrowding....
The state’s 17 prisons are well over capacity, with their population more than tripling over the past two decades....
Harold W. Clarke, commissioner of the Department of Correction, told union officials the state is considering closing as many as four prisons and laying off 300 employees, Steve Kenneway, president of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union, said.
“Obviously, we’re stunned that the fiscal situation is so egregious that we may be looking at the closure of several facilities in Massachusetts,’’ Kenneway said. “We believe that public safety is a core mission for Massachusetts government. Period. We can’t let bad people out on the street.’’
Actually, the government's core mission in Massachusetts is to take money from the taxpayer and either stuff their own pockets or ship it out to special interests.
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With the state no longer able to afford to build facilities, relaxed minimum sentences, accelerated parole reviews, and more liberal use of home confinements will be vital to curbing the prison population, supporters said.
Look I DO NOT WANT more prisons built; however, you KNOW where they can GET the $$$, don't you, readers?
You want to curb the prison population? RELEASE all the NON-VIOLENT PEOPLE!
In the face of a worsening financial crisis, the prison system also plans to cancel in-service training for correction officers and shelve training for 150 recruits this fall.
What do you mean? Everyday I am told by the Globe here that the recession is over, recovery is underway, and now we are growing at a 3% clip.
In November, it will also close a Bridgewater substance abuse center that treats more than 1,500 men....
But PROFITABLE HOLLYWOOD, LOSER BIOTECHS and FART-MISTING GREEN CAUSES get a TAXPAYER SUBSIDY! It's almost enough to make you start abusing substances.
If four prisons closed, Kenneway said, that would result in more double-bunking or the release of inmates onto the streets....
See: Massachusetts Helping to Employ Perverts
Many other states are grappling with overcrowded prisons. Last week, California officials asked the US Supreme Court to block a lower court order to come up with a plan to remove some 40,000 inmates from the prisons. The lower court ruled that the state’s prisons are so crowded they can no longer provide inmates with adequate medical care....
Of course, they are fine to work the fire lines!
Related: California's Death Sentence
Pffft!
Yeah, they don't have any money.
--more--"
And if you don't care for that view, well, there is always someone else getting hurt.
"Cuts in legal aid hit poorest; Funding plunges at Mass. agencies Thousands will be denied help" by Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | August 6, 2009
A dramatic drop in funding is forcing legal aid programs across Massachusetts to lay off lawyers, cut back their office hours, and turn away a growing number of people who cannot afford to pay for legal help.
Tens of thousands of people statewide who would normally qualify for free assistance this year will not get it, according to the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, a quasipublic agency that administers most of the funding for the state’s legal aid programs....
With low-income people struggling to fight foreclosures and avoid homelessness, the cutbacks could not come at a worse time, legal aid advocates said. Legal aid services are available to low-income people in noncriminal cases over such issues as housing, healthcare, and domestic violence.
Lonnie Powers, executive director of the state Legal Assistance Corporation:
“More people who need help with foreclosures, or battered women, or people who have been illegally denied wages they’ve earned, are not going to have a lawyer. It undercuts a foundation of a democratic society when people can’t get access to justice when they need it.’’
You mean, like INDEFINITE DETENTIONS and TORTURE?
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In hindsight, Powers said, when funding peaked a few years ago, more revenue should have been saved for a rainy day. Instead, some was used to boost staff and raise salaries for lawyers, who historically receive a fraction of the salaries they would get at private firms. The starting salary for a Legal Aid attorney in Massachusetts averages $45,000, he said.
Oh, and now they are RUNNING OUT of $$$, huh?
I've never seen $45,000 in a year my whole life!
(Blog editor sighs)
“We didn’t anticipate the downturn....’’
That's because you are not reading blogs!
They are the ONLY ONES who TELL the TRUTH anymore!
