Prisons, Rehabilitation & American Values

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Without ever having served any time in one, I cannot call myself an expert on prisons.  But I suspect I know something more about them than the average person.  I’ve visited more than a few throughout California in my work as a criminal defense attorney.  I know that prisons are considered by inmates to be better than jails.  I know this because I’m currently representing a prisoner in a habeas case, which has required him to be transported from the prison in Coalinga to Fresno and he has made it clear he would much rather be in the prison.

From what I’ve seen, while prisons are better than jails, prisons suck.

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“We’re Just Being Americans”

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Some of you will wonder why this article is going to start off, in a minute here, by talking about and quoting from comments made at so-called “town hall meetings” regarding Obama’s health care plan.  Is this blog “going political” or something?

There are actually two answers to that, the most simplistic of which is “no.”  Although, in a way, this blog is unavoidably political: the legal system is, at bottom, the reification of the politics of a given jurisdiction — or to be more honest about it, it is the reification of the politics of those who have the power over the legal system, such that they can reify their political views in a concrete system of law.  But I really want to save that discussion for another post.  At any rate, it must be admitted that, on the one hand, this blog has always been political.

On the other hand, this blog does focus on the legal system; it is my “professional” blog and I am an attorney.  We don’t typically think of discussions of the law as being political discussions, per se.  This post will maintain a focus on the legal system; not health care.  In that sense, then, this post is not a sign that the blog is “going political.”

The most I will say about Obama’s health care plan is that I’m not a socialist.  But, again, that particular issue is for discussion for another post and, with respect to Obama and/or political footballs like health care plans, for another blog.

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