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"Priority Test: Health Care or Prisons?"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this effective op-ed from the pen of Nicholas D. Kristof in today's New York Times. Here are excerpts: At a time when we Americans may abandon health care reform because it supposedly is ?too expensive,? how is it that we can afford to imprison people like Curtis Wilkerson?  Mr. Wilkerson is serving a life sentence in California ? for stealing a $2.50 pair of socks.  As The Economist noted recently, he already had two offenses on his record (both for abetting robbery at age 19), and so the ?three strikes? law resulted in a life sentence. This is unjust, of course. But considering that California spends almost $49,000 annually per prison inmate, it?s also an extraordinary waste of money. Astonishingly, many politicians seem to think that we should lead the world in prisons, not in health care or education...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 20, 2009 (boomark / email).