RHDefense: The Law Office of Rick Horowitz
Home of Probable Cause: The Legal Blog with the Really Low Standard of Review
Today’s Fresno Bee carries the story that Coalinga — a foothill town on the west side of the Valley, more than an hour or so from Fresno — is praying for prisoners. Scrambling to keep its doors open.
It’s important that Coalinga finds more prisoners. And fast.
This is the kind of story that should make ordinary human beings sick to their stomachs.
By now, only those living under rocks are unaware that governments — local, state, and federal — are running out of money. Anyone who has studied history could have predicted this would happen, but studying just about anything in the United States these days is disfavored.
We are, frankly, a nation of idiots. And, for some reason, we’re actually proud of that, which makes the writing of blog articles pointing out these problems even more discouraging for me.
Meanwhile, there are some people, including the Pew Center, writing some reports that really stink.
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.
The Law Office of Rick Horowitz provides criminal defense services
in Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Kern, Madera and Merced Counties.
Political Lies & Propositions 34/36
It’s pretty close to the day that we vote on a number of propositions for this year’s ballot. About a week ago, I wrote a post on Proposition 34, the initiative which will hopefully bring an end to the death penalty. Then, as now, I was spurred to the writing by reading the inimitable Jeff Gamso.
But today, I want to come at Proposition 34 from a different angle — and to include some discussion of Proposition 36, which would reform one of the most hideous pieces of legislation on California’s books. Proposition 36, for those who are unaware, deals with the so-called “Three Strikes” law, which was approved because, as they say, “hard cases make bad law.”
And now we have a chance to fix both the death penalty, and Three Strikes, as well as a few other things all in one election.
[Read more...]