Submitted By Bart Allen
The decision of whether to build a new jail, or at least a bigger one, seems to be on the to-do list for the residents of Saline County.
I think it would be useful to take some well-documented facts into consideration as we make the decision.
One is that locking up people is a really profitable business here in the USA, one that can be conveniently manipulated by our so-called leaders. Everyone, from the politicians on down, profits. Just think about it – a business where you can increase the demand for your product at a whim. As an example, having nearly tapped out the growth potential in the illegal drug market, our lawmakers have now actually made getting pregnant illegal in certain instances. Believe it or not, women can be imprisoned for simply having a child. It’s all just good business with seemingly unlimited growth potential.
For instance, keeping drugs illegal, with long sentences, is just a shrewd business tactic. Making sure law enforcement gets a cut from the drug profits is a standard business incentive program. Contributing to politicians that are in favor of locking up all of America one by one is especially good business sense for those enterprises that thrive lobbying, building, maintaining, and staffing the prisons. The list is endless.
As of 2008, 1 out of 32 Americans are involved in the justice system. Though the USA has less than 5% of the world’s population, we incarcerate more than 23% of the world’s prison population and have the highest documented incarceration rate in the entire world. This didn’t just happen by accident. It’s just the payoff for many years of astute business management by those that use the taxpayers as an endless fountain of easy cash with the more than willing aid of our politicians.
As we have been made aware over the last few months, a large percentage of those sitting in our jail wouldn’t even be there if they could just write a check and make things right. That’s why we are being told we need to consider a bigger jail. To house the poor.
Saline County Sheriff Kochanowski has gone on record stating a reason our jail is full is because many of the inmates had bad parents. Considering Kochanowski is a career law enforcement professional, his willful ignorance is both disturbing and shocking. Or, then again, maybe his job explains the ignorance.
In addition to the statistics mentioned is the well documented fact that the system is especially geared against those without the money to buy their way back out. It’s an established fact: Justice equals dollars. What’s happening to the poor in this country used to be called debtor’s prison and was explicitly outlawed in the late 1800’s. Now it’s been repackaged and our leaders pretend like it’s a different product. It isn’t. We call our particular version Saline County Jail. We even have our very own promo sound bite. Many residents have heard it. Salina: Come on vacation, leave on probation.
Is that why we have jails? To house people whose offenses are so minute they can just write a check and leave, if only they had the means? I’ve always been under the impression jail was for dangerous people, those that don’t play well with others.
Of course, there are a whole lot more people with poor money sense, no lawyers, and trust in a system specifically designed to screw them than there are true criminals. It has much better business growth potential, especially in a town with stagnant population growth and indifferent attitudes, like Salina.
Are we that kind of city? The kind that sees systematically locking up the population as simply a booming business that expands endlessly? Or the kind that recognizes the bastardization of the legal process at the expense of the defenseless in our society for what it truly is?
Un-American. I’d like to think Salina isn’t that kind of place. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
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