Tim Cavanaugh, CBC Radio Say Eh to Prison Reform

The word "Canada" appears twice in the Supreme Court's recent Brown v. Plata [pdf] decision ordering California's prison system to reduce its prisoner population to 137.5% of design capacity. Our neighbors to the north are swelled with brisk, unassuming Canadian pride about that – little suspecting that their own federal government is pushing the same kind of mandatory minimum sentencing laws and tough-on-drugs administrative penalties that turned California from hero to zero. 

At Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s Day 6 radio program, Reason Senior Editor Tim Cavanaugh talks with host Brent Bambury about how the prison spree helped kill progressive California, why sentencing reform is a political loser, and why the California prison guards' union was able to lock up Golden State politics. 

Grab a 12-pack of Moosehead and some back bacon and listen in at CBC.ca. 

Commit any crime necessary to read Reason's July special issue "Criminal Injustice: Inside America's national disgrace." 

At the Naranja County Register, Steven Greenhut explains what makes Incarcefornia an unstable polity.

Comments

[Andy Dufresne]

Can someone spare I motherfucking rock hammer?

[rather]

I don't think Canada will return to conservatism about some drug use; it is too socially acceptable to smoke

[What a disaster....]

...since liberal-progressives discovered "tough on crime." Expanding the welfare state to the point of collapse was not enough, they criminalized nearly everything to justify massive increases in law-enforcement and incarceration systems

[What a disaster....]

.....don't mention their discovery of the joys of war...

[Liberal]

Fuck you! Our wars are just; it's the Republican wars you gotta watch out for!

[Gray Davis]

Singapore is the starting point for what we want to accomplish. Just the starting point.

[nervous citizen]

what do I do with my used chewing gum?

[sage]

I stopped buying Moosehead when I graduated from high school. I got a bunch of skunky batches in a row. Fuck green bottles in the neck.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hoser.

[SIV]

There is non-skunky Moosehead? Canadian beer is worse than Australian beer and almost nothing is worse than that.

One of the many advantages of unchecked illegal immigration from the south border is the ubiquity of Latin-American beer. As good as or better than our stuff and big brewery US beer is nearly as good as it gets. I imagine the Czechs or the Slovaks get truly the best beer but it doesn't survive the "middle passage".

[Name Nomad]

Canadian beer is worse than Australian beer and almost nothing is worse than that.

What's the difference between American beer and sex in a rowboat?

None. They're both fucking close to water.

(Not necessarily as true now due to the rapid rise of microbreweries recently, but I still like that joke).

[Philosoraptor]

Well, not true at all anymore, if it ever was.

When I hear these things I imagine some foreigner douchebag sipping his swill while I down a nice Victory. The price of anti-Americanism is high indeed.

[Mr Whipple]

Canadian beer is worse than Australian beer and almost nothing is worse than that.

Coopers Ale isn't bad. Cheaper than Bass and almost as good.

[free2booze]

Mooseknuckle, pfft. Real Canadian's drink Molson Golson, eh.

[Mythical Canadian Libertarian]

No self-respecting Canadian beer drinker drinks Moosehead. We drink microbrews from the states.

[Marijuana Seeds]

America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace.Every state cant be successful if its juridical system is not good.

[TungTeller]

Well, they are humans too you know and have to be treated accordingly.

http://www.real-privacy.tk

[Hugh Akston]

Who, Canadians?

You got a lot to learn, anon-bot.

[rather]

You can't trust anything that shit anon-bot says, all his parts are Chinese

[Kitty Forman]

Oh honey, Canadians don't matter!

[Philosoraptor]

No mention of Moynihan's Law of the Canadian Border, eh?

[Icying]

http://www.coffeemachinehome.c.....o-machines Espresso Machines
http://www.coffeemachinehome.c.....g-machines Vending Machines

[TheZeitgeist]

...since liberal-progressives discovered "tough on crime." Expanding the welfare state to the point of collapse was not enough, they criminalized nearly everything to justify massive increases in law-enforcement and incarceration systems

I'm not exactly a bleeding heart, but I remember a lot of these Tough on Crime shticks came out of Pete Wilson's California, and they pass so consistently because of Republican support.

Ditto for Pataki and Ghouliani in the opposite-to-LAfornia Liberal Magnetic Pole of New Yorkshire.

And fact is, all 'crime' is down-down-down over past twenty years...especially the rape, murder, property crimes; we libertarians know those things as 'real' crime.

Now, I am not saying locking everyone up over same past measure is the dominant reason for this pleasant long-term trend. However, that fact is devastating and powerful rhetorical weapon for both right and left to justify it to their respective mobs in the Forum as it were.