Tag Archives: prison reform

Gov. Deal: the bad, prison slave labor competing with free labor

Gov. Nathan Deal said he was for free-enterprise chickens, but he wants the government to supply prison slave labor to grow them.

Continuing Gov. Deal: the good, the ugly, and the bad on prisons, quoting again from David Rodock’s interview with Gov. Nathan Deal in today’s VDT.

The Bad

Remember Gov. Deal mentioned poultry operators as an illustration of his bogus point that government intervention is always bad? Well, I guess he forgot that when he answered this question:
THE TIMES: Your proposal to have probationers replace illegal immigrants for farm labor. Did that idea work? If it didn’t or it did, what’s going to happen next year during the picking season?

DEAL: “Well, it worked with some success. I think there was a great deal of skepticism about it on whether these people will work and there is a threat associated with their presence. We have to remember that probationers are not under arrest. They are free in our society.

Really? Except for little things like not being able to vote if they are felons, and having to pay their probation officers. But back to the Gov.: Continue reading

Gov. Deal: the good, the ugly, and the bad on prisons

Gov. Nathan Deal proposed a half-measure to reduce the Georgia prison population that nonetheless is a useful measure (the good). He reiterated a bogus talking point (the ugly). Then he proceeded to contradict it in advocating something that would work against reducing the prison population (the bad).

David Rodock’s interview with Gov. Nathan Deal is in the VDT today.

The Good

THE TIMES: How are we going to address the large number of incarcerated citizens and decrease those numbers?

DEAL: “I think one of the better things we can do is have accountability in courts whether they be drug courts, DUI courts, mental-health courts, towards sentence reform. the like. We know that they work. We know the recidivism rate, if they go through those approaches rather than directly into the prison system. We have less recidivism. We break the addictions, and we’ve got to work very closely on that.”

I’ve previously noted that Gov. Deal has taken at least a tentative step towards sentence reform. That’s good, but not enough. Let’s do the rest, Continue reading