Kevin Mannix, who lost as a candidate for governor, state attorney general and congressman, has had a more successful career pushing get-tough-on-crime measures. But he’s finding it tough to get traction with this year’s entry – even among some of his fellow Republicans.
In a campaign speech in Hermiston yesterday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley said he wouldn’t support Mannix’s Measure 73, which would increase prison sentences for sex offenders and drunken drivers. That would mean an extra $18 million to $29 million a year in state prison costs, and Dudley said Oregon just can’t afford it.
“While the goals of these measures are laudable, their cost is simply too high,” Dudley was quoted by The Oregonian.
A week ago, Oregon’s newly created Citizens Review Panel also gave thumbs down to Measure 73 for the same reason. “Twenty-one of the 24 panelists opposed Measure 73, saying that mandating the longer prison terms would cost too much and limit judges’ power,” The Oregonian reported. “The three who supported the measure said the harsher penalties would deter crime and increase public safety.”
Mannix promptly attacked the citizen panel – established by the state legislature on a pilot basis in 2009 – as an unnecessary extra layer of bureaucracy.
“We keep adding more layers and bureaucracy to what’s supposed to be an open and creative process,” he said. “This is a review process to get the opinion of the people. But that’s what the election is for.”
The Oregon Anti-Crime Alliance, which supports M73, lost no time in whining that the citizen review process was “fatally flawed.”
It complained that members of the panel “had not been screened for fairness and impartiality regarding Measure 73,” and in particular that one “experienced attorney” in the group “was obviously strongly opposed to mandatory minimum sentences from the outset,” which “amounted to the equivalent of the opposition to Measure 73 having one of their own attorneys on the panel.”
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2010.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
That’s because Dudley is a neo-con and probably believes privatizing prisons will take the financial burden off the government. Except even a privatized prison gets paid to operate by the government, much the same as a welfare program. The more prisoners on your rolls, the more money you get. So then, as a private prison owner, you’d pay off judges to get folks harsher sentences for minor crimes, get more prisoners in for longer periods, etc. etc.
Plus, privatized prisons fit into the sadomasochistic worldview of the neo-cons (a view cogently depicted in Max Blumenthal’s recent ‘Republican Gomorrah’). Getting convicted of a crime and going to prison means you got whatever you got coming, sadomasochistly speaking. And a privatized prison, as part of some massive corporate giant or t’other, would not, of course, be much beholden to any public policing as to the treatment of its prisoners. Hence a privatized prison would be a sadomasochist’s paradise. Hence the neo-cons love the idea of privatizing prisons as much as they love seeing poor people suffer without health care, as much as they love war-mongering, as much as they love hating homosexuals, as much as they love being scared of terrorists, as much as they enjoy the Old Testament, as much as they fetishize Armageddon. And so on.
Chris Dudley…the “white Obama”.
No political experience really…his positions are unclear…won’t debate to the fullest.
But gee, he is popular…looks good…speaks well…and promises hope and change.
Sound familiar?