NC or OK?

It's time for the NC or OK game!

Prisoner walks out of prison, pretending to be his own brother (details are a bit fuzzy).

But the guard, and the people he tries to get to help him, are such fat-asses that they can't catch the guy.  In fact, they can't even really run at all.

NC or OK?

Here's the video....

David Skarbek's Book Trailer

Pretty cool to have a book trailer.  *I* don't have a book trailer.  But David Skarbek does:

Bed Mandate

We have written about this before.  But it's pretty remarkable.

"In the past five years, Homeland Security officials have jailed record numbers of immigrants, driven by a little-known congressional directive known on Capitol Hill as the 'bed mandate.' The policy requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep an average of 34,000 detainees per day in its custody, a quota that has steadily risen since it was established in 2006 by conservative lawmakers who insisted that the agency wasn’t doing enough to deport unlawful immigrants. But as illegal crossings from Mexico have fallen to near their lowest levels since the early 1970s, ICE has been meeting Congress’s immigration detention goals by reaching deeper into the criminal justice system to vacuum up foreign-born, legal U.S. residents convicted of any crimes that could render them eligible for deportation. The agency also has greatly expanded the number of undocumented immigrants it takes into custody after traffic stops by local police...With federal spending on immigration detention and deportation reaching $2.8 billion a year, more than doubling since 2006, the mandate has met growing skepticism from budget hawks in both parties, particularly after DHS officials told Congress during the 'sequestration' debate in April that the agency could save money by lowering the bed mandate to 31,800 and relying on cheaper alternatives to jails. But House Republicans successfully pushed back, set the mandate at 34,000 detainees and ordered ICE officials to spend nearly $400 million more than they requested." WaPo.

Apparently, the whole thing is really due to the fact that Robert Byrd  hated brown people.  (You know how they are...all..brown.)  Actually, there is another explanation.  The prison-industrial complex makes a fortune out of running these "hotels" for their desperate guests.

Nod to Kevin Lewis

Why Are So Many US Citizens in US Prisons?

How Come We Don' Hear....

How come we don't hear outrage from the left Guantanamo any more?

Because you bunch of hypocrites never actually cared about human rights in the first place? Just wanted an excuse to Bush bash? You people make me SICK.

Here at KPC, we have ALWAYS expressed outrage. 'Cause it's Gitmo we hate, not particular little political teams with D or R on their nice corporate-logo sweaters. WE gots no team, so we must scream.

Why Are Our Prisons Overcrowded?

Why are our prisons overcrowded?

a. Too many criminals
b. Too many laws
c. Not enough prisons

If you answered "b", you are CORRECT, sir!

Lots of background and graphics.

Obama's Books: Good Enough to Buy, But Not to Read?

A strange juxtaposition of two stories.

1. U.S. taxpayers pay for more than 7,000 copies of Pres O's books. Mostly "Dreams from My Father," apparently.

2. Those same books have been banned as subversive and objectionable, containing material "potentially detrimental to national security"

Now, I should say two things. I thought "Audacity of Hope" was more like "The Mendacity of a Dope," a load of ideological pap. But "Dreams From My Father" is terrific book, very moving, honest. (Well, maybe not honest, exactly, but coming across as honest). I read DFMF twice, and really liked it.

Second, the fact that Prez O's books were banned as "detrimental" doesn't mean much. In the supermax setting, newspapers and books that contain any passages that even refer to foreign policy are banned.

Still, it does seem odd that these two things are happening together. Our embassies are handing out the book to foreigners as inspirational, UNLESS those foreigners happen to be in jail.

(Nod to the Blonde)

NSFW: Prison Camp Economics

I am teaching Radford's famous "Economics of a POW Camp" article tomorrow. Wondered if there were any good videos about cigarette currencies.

Found this: very very very NSFW. Or class. But PERFECT for KPC!


Also: did find this video about candy as currency, because cigs are contraband.

Which reminds me: that most excellent Skarbek, with whom I am well pleased, just placed this paper in the APSR. yes, forthcoming, beeyotches! Way to go, Skarbek!