— I used to have an anger problem and now I am less prone to anger. It is not that I do not experience anger, it is that it is not as intense and I am often able to let it go. Also, I reflect on things moreÉ All in all I am changing for the better. —

Jeffrey Nichols, Huttonsville Correctional Center, West Virginia

 


— If one uses this time and experience of being in prison to practice meditation, to practice dharma, then being in prison, even though it is believed you are in prison by outside people, in reality it becomes a retreat for you. —

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

World Watch


Prison Games
California can't afford to play them anymore

The Reporter, 13 July 2008


'Aging inmates add strain on state prisons," said the headline in last Sunday's Reporter. It was affixed to an Associated Press report detailing how the average age of California prisoners is climbing, putting more pressure on the broken prison health-care system.

But it wasn't prison health-care that captured the attention of The Reporter's editorial board, or the fact that the writer highlighted the problem by focusing on a Vacaville prison. It was a single paragraph describing why Louis Rodriguez - a 66-year-old inmate struggling through the final stages of liver cancer at the California Medical Facility - is even in prison.

"He is serving a life sentence after being convicted of a 'third strike' for stealing candy and cheese from a Los Angeles County grocery store," author Don Thompson wrote. "The conviction in 2000 followed another petty theft and a string of robberies nearly 30 years ago."

A life sentence for petty theft? And it's costing taxpayers $98,000 to $138,000 a year to incarcerate sick inmates such as Mr. Rodriguez - more than twice to lock up a healthy prisoner.

Is this really what California voters had in mind when they approved Three Strikes 14 years ago?

The law of unintended consequences has caught up with California. The state budget and the prison system are broken, and federal judges are now taking charge of the latter.

Click here to read the full article.

  • JUNE