Sunday, March 27, 2011

This is the best we can do?

On the news, the New York state budget that the legislature and governor just agreed upon was discussed. Understandably, budget cuts are required. As expected, groups that have their budgets cut are unhappy (the attitude seems to always be that "cutting the budget on your favorite programs is necessary, but cutting the budget on my favorite programs is just excessive").

Anyway, one of the budget cuts is for state prisons - 10% of all prison beds in the state will be eliminated. In other words, about 3,700 prisoners will be released due to these budget cuts.

I've got a better idea. If we need to cut the prison budget, let's keep all the criminals in jail and eliminate all prison extras that cost money. We'll start with simple things like tv and all entertainment. We'll keep cutting until we reach the required budget. I'm willing to cut pretty deep on any and all prison frills (and my definition of "frills" is very, very broad). How about if we keep these 3,700 criminals prison cells, and give them nothing but bread and water. How expensive could that be?

No comments: