CaboRon
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Jobs for Baja California
Speaking to reporters at the Sacramento Press Club, Schwarzenegger said California could ease its strained finances by a billion dollars if 20,000
illegal immigrants currently held in the state were housed across the border.
"I think that we can do so much better in the prison system alone if we can go and take, inmates for instance, the 20,000 inmates that are illegal
immigrants that are here and get them to Mexico," Schwarzenegger said.
"Think about it -- if California gives Mexico the money. Not 'Hey, you take care of them, these are your citizens'. No. Not at all.
"We pay them to build the prison down in Mexico. And then we have those undocumented immigrants down there in prison. It would half the costs to build
the prison and run the prison. We could save a billion dollars right there that could go into higher education."
Schwarzenegger's remarks come as California prepares for the latest in a long line of state budget crises.
Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency earlier this month, warning severe cuts were necessary to stem a 19.9-billion-dollar deficit.
California has some of the most overcrowded prisons in the United States, with an estimated 170,000 inmates housed in facilities designed for 100,000
people, according to 2007 figures.
Schwarzenegger said he believed the financial burden of California's prisons could be eased if the private sector moved into the industry.
"I think that there is no reason why we should have just state employees and public prisons," Schwarzenegger said. "Why shouldn't we have private
prisons and private prisons competing with public prisons?
"I don't want to go and get rid of public prisons, not at all. It's not an attack on their labor union even though they may take it as such.
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Woooosh
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California has been ordered by the courts to thin out its prison population pronto. Although Mexicans and us-expats won't be thrilled about 20,000
criminals being returned- it is the Governators best option. He has tried to get the Feds to pay the cost of housing illegal crimnals- but to no
avail. Maybe we can ask to have them be bussed further away to the mainland though...
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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BajaGringo
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Maybe we could put them to work on building some more bridges...
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mtgoat666
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arny is just stirring the hornets nest, like a little boy who thinks it's fun to watch the reaction:  the prison guards union will react like usual, the prison guards union (and other state employee unions) own the
legislature.
fyi, we need a constitutional convention to rewrite cali constitution, repeal prop 13, cut the duplication of regulatory departments 
doubtful that mexico will be too keen on running 2 prison systems, one for US law breakers and second for mexican law breakers
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Bajahowodd
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One question I have is with respect to the 20,000 or so "illegal immigrants" referenced, what is the nature of their crime? Is it just being here
illegally? Or did they commit a different, specific crime? Doing the math, these 20,000 represent slightly less than 12% of California's inmate
population. Shipping them South would obviously save some money. But, the costs of incarcerating people in the US is way out of whack. There are two
main culprits. The first is that over the past 30 years, we have gone nuts in adding non-violent offenders to our prison population. In 1980, the US
had approximately 40,000 drug-related offenders behind bars. As of 2008, that number had swelled to approximately 500,000. Maybe someone would like to
consider the previous thread discussions about the drug cartels and demand, etc. It just appears to me that despite attacking the problem from both
ends, we have solved nothing.
And, just another little tidbit about USS prison population- A contributing factor to the high numbers is that our "tough on crime" attitude results
in longer prison sentences than other countries. For instance, in the US, a burglary conviction results in an average sentence of 16 months. In
Canada, the average is 5 months and in the UK, 7 months.
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Woooosh
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bajahowodd
One question I have is with respect to the 20,000 or so "illegal immigrants" referenced, what is the nature of their crime? Is it just being here
illegally? Or did they commit a different, specific crime? Doing the math, these 20,000 represent slightly less than 12% of California's inmate
population. Shipping them South would obviously save some money. But, the costs of incarcerating people in the US is way out of whack. There are two
main culprits. The first is that over the past 30 years, we have gone nuts in adding non-violent offenders to our prison population. In 1980, the US
had approximately 40,000 drug-related offenders behind bars. As of 2008, that number had swelled to approximately 500,000. Maybe someone would like to
consider the previous thread discussions about the drug cartels and demand, etc. It just appears to me that despite attacking the problem from both
ends, we have solved nothing.
And, just another little tidbit about USS prison population- A contributing factor to the high numbers is that our "tough on crime" attitude results
in longer prison sentences than other countries. For instance, in the US, a burglary conviction results in an average sentence of 16 months. In
Canada, the average is 5 months and in the UK, 7 months. |
I agree. I don't think there would be talk about putting them in Mexico prisons if they were only being held on immigration charges.
I agree with you that prison terms for non-violent crimes are too long. The three-strikes rule didn't help either. We've all seen the story about
the guy who stole a pizza as his third strike and wound up in jail for life. Doesn't seem to be working.
Nice to see the BajaGringo posting again too... 
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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wessongroup
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Was just talking to a couple, one guy was working for Calimex in Rosarito pushing shopping carts.. I was in the car waiting for the wife to do her
shopping..
Had the windows rolled down, with both the dogs checking folks out.. well, this fella that was collecting shopping carts and pushing them back to be
used again, came over to the car and said something in Spanish.. the dogs didn't bark.. so no "spiny sense" from either... so he was OK in my book..
said I don't speak Spanish.. then I started talking a mile a minute in English..
Had been kicked out, had been in trouble (had "ink" which was definitely prison ink) said that he had finally gotten this job, with Calimex about 14
months ago, after all most starving to death.. but it was all good and he had a small place to live now, and things were not too bad for him at this
time..
Another fella came up and started talking too.. he too was from the States and had been kicked out too .. "dropped at the border by bus upon release
from prison"
They both said that literally thousands and thousands of guys have been deported from the States in the past couple of years and it is continuing ..
The first guy was born in Mexico, but his family moved to the States when he was 5 or 6, lived out in Norco and went to school there.. had gotten into
trouble a number of times.. and it was found out that he was not supposed to be here.. and hence he was dropped at the SY border and told to keep
going... and not come back.
Not sure exactly how many, but I see a lot of "guys" selling papers, washing window on cars and a lot of other "hustles" to get by in Tijuana when we
go through town..
Just a comment on a event which would appear to have already started in California, when they are RELEASED, and most likely any place where Agency can
get a handle on the origin of the individual and make a call
[Edited on 1-26-2010 by wessongroup]
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CaboRon
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You are right ...
It has been policy for some years now ..... If you are an illegal allien and are in the prison system, you are automatically deported upon being
released .... it is only fair.
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