mark schmanke

schererville, IN

I build, I toil, I fight, I fear, I love, I laugh, I live, I grow daily!
I cry for the failure of "prisons" http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199812/prisons/3

http://schmanke.tripod.com

mark commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Our Morally Unacceptable Criminal Justice System

This article was placed here for an eye opener to the inequalities and injustices manufactured by our entire criminal justice system. Not the isolated issue of sex offenders and the poorly run sex offender notification system.

When a nation, like ours, imprisons millions for the multiple "crimes" listed today, ruining the lives of not just the prisoner but impacting the families, entire neighborhoods, and small business's as well, then something is definitely wrong with the system. Gayle's comments are a definitive primer on some of these problems.

The reason I provided Matt with this article is at least the author was attempting to offer some solutions to the problems. While I do not agree with all of the authors suggestions, I do agree that more work needs to be done to rectify the serious social problems this "lock em up" nation has created with its Prison Industrial Complex. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199812/prisons/3

We are now a country which relies on corporations to administer our justice system.
mark commented on the article | over 2 years ago

The Right to (Competent) Counsel

Unfortunately Jack, I agree with you. But, the governments, federal, state and local do not have the necessary money to provide "Public Defenders" who are not juggling a dozen other manila file folders. The Federal PD's office in Chicago is a perfect example, they juggle a hundred or so clients and the court's are therefore required to appoint outside counsel, who, recieving a 1,500.00 cap on defending a case, be it murder or deportation proceedings, do not have the private money to provide a competant defense and who are more concerned with defending their paying clients at 250.00 an hour (ct time) than formulating a complete defense for some poor indigent, who in some cases, should not be convicted...or as in this case, deported, or in the following: http://immigration.change.org/actions/view/grant_justice_and_stop_the_deportation_of_julio_maldonado_and_denis_calderon
mark commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Arizona Seeks to Privatize its Prisons

"Not to mention that the business is "like a hotel where you lock in the guests, and if they try to escape you shoot them."

Shades of "Hotel California" have come to fruition in America. Sure, its a bad idea Matt...unfortunately until some event like Attica comes to haunt the company, they will continue to roll out these "lowest-common-denominator incarceration factories."
mark signed the petition | over 2 years ago

Freedom for Leslie Van Houten
mark commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Police Chiefs: Death Penalty Doesn't Work

The following article pretty well sums this debate up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/death-from-cluelessness-s_b_327626.html

I find it particularly telling that the former Governor of Texas, the state with the highest killing rate, had the temerity to state the following:

“There is a very strong case to be made for…a look at the possibility of having life without parole so we don’t look up one day and determine that we, as the State of Texas, have executed someone who in fact was innocent.”

Imagine that...we the people have authorized government officials to commit the murder of innocent people, in the name of justice.
mark signed the petition | over 2 years ago

Grant Justice and Stop the Deportation of Julio Maldonado and Denis Calderon
mark commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Do 2/3 of Americans Really Support the Death Penalty?

http://www.examiner.com/x-15870-Populist-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Study-Death-penalty-is-a-waste-of-taxpayer-money

while browsing after making comments about this topic I discovered this article on the costs of the Death Penalty.

Woiuldn't this wasted taxpayer money be more useful in establishing educational programs????
mark commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Do 2/3 of Americans Really Support the Death Penalty?

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3472872.html

The Death Penalty... what a ridiculous idea... rational thinking people should never support STATE sponsored killing, in any form. As I have stated, and many others as well, many times in these forums, it is cost ineffectient, morally corrupt, and racially motivated in many ways. Due to the remarkable work of the Innocence Project, http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/Browse-Profiles.php we have only recently discovered that our state sanctioned murder has ended the lives of many innocent people, ruining the lives of their families as well.

This is unacceptable. So is the Death Penalty.
mark commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Healthy Prison Food

What a wonderful idea... feed the prisoner's food that is healthy. After working in the various kitchens for years in these wonderfully fat rich, high sodium environments, with the added sedentary lifestyle, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedentary_lifestyle

I have recently discovered that I now suffer from PADS.

Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) can affect the arteries, the veins or the lymph vessels. The most common and important type of PVD is peripheral arterial disease, or PAD, which affects about 8 million Americans. It becomes more common as one gets older, and by age 65, about 12 to 20 percent of the population has it. Diagnosis is critical, as people with PAD have a four to five times higher risk of heart attack or stroke.

I am certain that many of my former co-prisoners, who have spent decades within the system are also suffering from this malady leading to higher medical costs of those who still manage to survive the system, but remain inside.

So, I applaud this new "healthy" approach for Indiana, possibly some of this idea may rub off on other administrators throughout the country and they too will lean down their dietary offerings.
mark commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Hiding ‘Problem Prisoners’ to Pass Inspection

Kudo's to this post Matt.

This is an all too often overlooked devious action by administrators of the prison systems in this country. One of the other primary "reasons" for midnite transfers is not just to avoid audits, its to avoid a lawsuit, or as punishment for bringing legal actions against the administration. My personal experience within the system is a good example. After spending 6 months in the "Con-Air" transfer system due to my bringing legal actions on behalf of myself and others within the system, and then landing more than 1,000 miles from "home" I was blatantly told by the former administrators of the new digs where I was assigned to that "we do not care about your Constitutional rights here, you're in (a Federal Prison) and we do care about your lawsuits, we make paper airplanes out of them and throw them out the window and if we lose, we just pay you off with confiscated drug money." (Actual testimony from a counselor in a federal lawsuit).

It has been my experience throughout the ardious and lengthy battle with various administrators over the years, that transfers are a common practice to punish uncooperate prisoners, litigatious prisoners, to break up "gangs", or to avoid a ceiling cap on the population. Rarely does a transfer actually occur that brings prisoners closer to family, or to accomodate the prisoner's special needs, be it medical or therapeutic.

There are of course, legitimate transfers and I applaud the ideal of using the transfer system to bring family members closer to home. However, with the BOP population at more than 200,000, and state facilities housing upwards of 800,000, the management and control of the prison populations throughout the country becomes increasingly more difficult and onerously more expensive.

Gee, here's an idea, release non-violent first time prisoners and quit playing "ghosting" games with the public.