Rosie said: “The criminal justice system in California is broken. There is no denying that. Castandeda should have never even gone to jail in the first place. He was convicted of possession of a controlled substance, not of selling it. He was NOT a drug pusher but a drug taker. They should have sent him back to El Salvador instead of keeping him here. The medical facilities in prison are terrible. It does not surprise me they did nothing to help treat him in prison. As long as people go to prison for possession of a controlled substance, including pot, the budget crisis will only get worse. The Three Strikes Law is super expensive for California, and is the reason so many people are in prison for the most stupid reasons like possession of marijuana. I went to a trial just today where a guy only had one joint on him and had been in jail five months while awaiting trial. That is rediculous. There was so much money spent just keeping him in jail. I think of all the child molestors and rapists that get out early to make room for non-violent offenders like these people who are convicted of drug possession, and it really pisses me off. Now that is the real travesty. The racist criminal justice system in California needs to be fixed. And until it is, there will be no money for schools or social programs because prison happy prosecutors just want to look good in the eyes of the public. They could care less about the people they send to prison, or about the resources they are wasting by doing so.”
by Jack Lee
A reply to Rosie: Rosie, thank you for your comments, but you made a few assumptions that were just plain wrong and we need to bring you the right information. I’m a retired CA narcotics officer and I’ll be happy to give you the information you need to make an informed decision.
Castenada was being investigated for selling meth. He was a drug pusher Rosie, make no mistake. It’s fairly common (90% of the time) that meth sellers are also meth users. This helps them maintain their bad habit for little to no cost.
He was arrested and convicted in 2005 of possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute. I’m glad you came to the drug pusher’s defense Rosie – it gave me the opportunity to set the record straight for anyone who might be confused.
I’ve heard pros and cons about the medical facilities in prison, mostly cons, I grant you that. But, its not meant to be a perfect medical care facility. We do the best we can with what we have and we spend a ton of money on it.
Rosie did you know that prison inmates are the only Americans with a constitutional right to health care, and the cost to deliver it is on the rise?
States spend 10 percent of their corrections budgets on average to cover the cost of inmate health care — a total of over $3 billion annually.
As the prison population increases, ages and increasingly suffers from chronic illnesses such as AIDS and hepatitis, state policy makers must either foot the bill, change the way health care is delivered or rethink the sentencing laws.
Because of California’s three-strikes law, more people are going to prison and staying behind bars longer and it’s still cheaper than letting these predators loose on society. The cost of this effort takes billions out of the system to pay for inmate medical costs.
State and federal drug laws have put 277,000 offenders in jail, which accounts for 20 percent of state prisoners and over 60 percent of federal prisoners, according to the Justice Department. ONLY about 1% were incarcerated for marijuana sales.
California found that 41 percent of incoming inmates were infected with the Hepatitis virus. Hepatitis C infects the liver, and is spread through contaminated blood or needles. Also, one inmate in 10 is mentally ill, some having ended up in prison when budget cuts closed state mental hospitals in the 1980s.
California currently spends over $43 a day per inmate for healthcare. We spend 4 times as much as New Jersey and 3 times as much as most states. We spend billions on heatlhcare for inmates… so tell us Rosie, just how much of the state’s budget are you willing to divert to first rate medcial care in prisons? How much would you like to take away from other programs, like Medical, elder care, homeless programs, mental health, welfare, education, highways, enviromental programs, etc., to fund even more in the prison medical system? Inmates get better free care than most of us, if I had $40 a day to spend on medical insurance I would have the best policy in the world. I don’t get $40…I don’t get anything, I PAY it all myself and that is what most of do.
I know there will be cases like Casteneda’s because the system is not perfect. Its never been perfect and it needs constant attention to stop waste, fraud and abuse…but is that any reason to punish the innocent taxpayer by giving a 17 year old girl 1.73 million dollars because her daddy made stupid life choices and became the lowest sort of human being that causes misery and death to those who get involved in meth because of them? Her life was screwed up by her father, not us. He owes her – not us. That is the cold hard reality that idiotic jury failed to realize.
When you think about the prison medical system, think about the thousands of inmates that have been saved and get free treatment for costly diseases.
Re: “Her life was screwed up by her father, not us. He owes her – not us. That is the cold hard reality that idiotic jury failed to realize.”
On a side note Rosie’s comments and the above go far to explain why Jerry Brown was elected and the Democrats swept every state-wide office.
Pie, there was a recent study of how people vote and it was determined that people who vote late and sometimes make up their mind in the voting booth tend to be poorly informed and under educated. Those who are undereducated and poorly informed also tend to vote democrat. So the late vote favors the democratic candidate and this tendsa to explain why these people don’t show up on polling data and can often sway an election in the final moments. It’s a lot easier to attract stupid people and its easier for people to be stupid than intelligent and educated. So its an uphil struggle for the republicans as they attract just the opposite types and those people are in the minority of voters.
Jack, darling, you have confirmed Rosie’s assertion:
“Castenada was being investigated for selling meth. He was a drug pusher Rosie, make no mistake. It’s fairly common (90% of the time) that meth sellers are also meth users.”
“… investigated for ….” Listen to yourself, will you?
However, I think it highly unlikely that, had the gentleman be repatriated, he would have survived his cancer.
The thing is, again, we are not talking about Jimmy down the block. We are talking about this nation, and the depths of barbarism to which it has sunk … and is sinking still further.
My dearest darling Libby, I feel your pain. We’re an imperfect nation and our free medical care to inmates is a reflection of that imperfection.
Question for you Libby, how does our medical care for inmates rank among the worlds other nations? I don’t know, but it would be interesting to find out so we could have some sort of backdrop to judge how we’re doing. I can tell you we are spending more than anyone else. Does this count? It seems to be the measure by which liberals and democrats gage success.