A bill that would have required jail and prison inmates to pay $5.00 dollars a day to help defray the costs of their incarceration was defeated in a state senate committee, Fox News Radio reported.
Senator Tom Harmon (R), Huntington Beach, sponsored the bill which was modeled after a similar law already in effect in Massachusetts. This bill was one of a number introduced by the senator, a candidate for the state’s Attorney General office to be filled in November. Another bill by senator Harmon, to change the state’s lethal injection administration procedure from a three-drug-cocktail to a single drug solution is still alive.
Opinion—In this fiscally depressed economy it seems some lawmakers, especially those running for office with limited funds or little or no name-recognition, will try almost anything to garner attention—no matter the long-term consequences.
By placing the burden of paying for their incarceration on prisoners and their families, without providing them with the resources, skills, or education to meet that obligation, Senator Harmon is simply attempting to exploit an already subjugated class of people who possess little or no political rights or advocacy.
Without guaranteeing prisoners and ex-prisoners job-training and employment, both during their incarceration and after their release, measures such as this would simply be another artificial obstacle to the restoration of civil equality for former inmates and their loved ones. A more sensible approach would be to mandate and fund education, rehabilitation, and vocational training during incarceration, then guarantee job and housing placement upon an inmate’s release. This would go much farther in ensuring public safety than the current policy of locking prisoners up for long periods of time, at exorbitant costs, then releasing them into the community no better or in many cases worse off than when they went in.
