"Liberal" Massachusetts spends more on Prison than Schools

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/11/25/colleges_trail_prisons_in_funds/

For the first time in at least 35 years, Massachusetts is spending more on prisons and jails than on public higher education, according to a report released yesterday.

...

This year's state budget included $816 million in appropriations for campuses and student financial aid, and $830 million for prisons and jails, said the report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

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Regarding prisons, the report suggested that the state extend parole eligibility to nonviolent offenders serving mandatory minimum sentences and adopt sentencing guidelines that would provide less expensive alternatives to incarceration for first-time and nonviolent offenders.

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Thank you, drug warriors.

[arewethereyet]

1. better cut out the lobster dinners on Fridays

jeez, how screwed up is this ?

[Abe Linkman]

2. Why imprison ANYONE for something they ingest?

What's the rationale for locking up people because of something they eat, smoke or otherwise ingest...in this land of the free, and home of the brave Drug Warriors who benefit from the monkey that must be fed by the law enforcement/prison industrial complex? Told me, if you can.

[sandnsea]

3. Liberal Vermont too

I don't know about more, but prison spending increased dramatically under Dean.

"As a comparison to that Vermont has over the last ten years, which is Dean's time in office, in Vermont we increased our investment in our prisons, our state prisons by 150 percent; we've increased our investment in our state colleges by about 7 percent. So we have done a lot more to build a put people in prison than we have to invest in and put kids in our colleges."

The Progressive candidate, Anthony Pollina interview, 2002

http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/dean/dean0702/pollinaint.html

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

4. liberal Clinton too

The prison economy ramped up under Clinton faster than Bush Sr. from what I can remember.

[Scott Lee]

5. What do you expect from a state that elects Mitt Romney?

I think the Massachusetts = Liberal play has been exposed.

[bicentennial_baby]

6. We always have Repub governors

Romney
Swift
Cellucci
Weld
etc.

It's balance, and they're usually moderate Repukes at that. I hate Romney though...fucking carpetbagger. :mad: