U.K. Runs Out of Jail Cells
A good sign that a government has failed is when improper functions of government metastasize to the point where they crowd out proper functions of government. Major examples are the New York City fiscal crisis of 1975 and the current Social Security crisis.
It seems that one of the first victims of malignant fiscal policy is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the courts (which are, remember, the “weakest branch” of government). Examples here and here.
And here:
Thousands of prisoners will be released early in an attempt to ease prison overcrowding, under plans approved by [U.K. Home Secretary] Charles Clarke.Criminals sentenced to four years in prison could be freed after just 18 months, The Times has learnt. A two-year sentence would mean spending only six months in jail.
The early release, under a curfew and electronic tag, will be in addition to the automatic release halfway through all sentences of less of than four years.
Half the 70,000 prisoners sentenced each year to less than four years in jail for offences such as burglary, fraud and theft are estimated to be eligible for the scheme.
I know of very few libertarians who would argue that prisons are not a proper function of government (the laws that actually put people in prison are another question altogether).
At what point do hack politicians and bureaucrats finally admit that there is something intrinsically dysfunctional about a fiscal policy that cannot afford the most basic services, such as keeping burglars locked up? Does it really require default on municipal debt, or dead judges?
Government needs to do what government needs to do, and do it first. The bells and whistles of the regulatory-redistributionist-paternalist omnistate can be debated later.
UPDATE: On the same meme –
Budget pinching has prompted federal court clerks’ offices across the country to curtail public hours of operation, with at least one Mississippi clerk’s office shuttered to save money, according to a survey by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.While Congress mandates annual wage increases to court staff, the pay hikes have not been funded, forcing courts to take money from operations in other areas or reduce staff numbers through layoffs, attrition and retirement.
At least 36 district and bankruptcy courts have curtailed office hours in 76 locations nationwide in the last two years, according to the survey.
Justice delayed shuttered due to inadequate funding is justice denied.
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And isn't it true that the US government divides its budget into "mandatory" and "discretionary" spending? Everything mandatory we would consider to be improper and everything proper is discretionary.
Remarkable.
But the regulatory-redistributionist-paternalist omnistate keeps people out of jail. That's what we hear all the time, so it must be true.
Isn't a growing prison population indicative of a serious problem with society?
In the UK (where I once lived), one could be sent to jail — criminally convicted — for losing his train ticket and not presenting it when the conductor came around.
Miss paying your council tax (local authority per-head tax of about $2,000 per year)? Perhaps you never got the bill, or they lost your cheque? If a bailiff is feeling like "teaching you a lesson," he can haul you in front of magistrate's court, demand a full accounting of your income, and then jail you — with a criminal conviction.
Drive in London? Chances are good you'll accidentally end up in a bus lane for half a block or so (the bus lanes constantly appear and disappear without warning). They'll photograph your license plate and mail you a $1,000 ticket. Never got the ticket? Couldn't pay within 30 days? You're losing your car and going to jail, buck-o.
I wonder how many of the people in prison are there not for burglaries or rapes, but rather victimless crimes like the aforementioned, as well as violation s of "speech laws" and other such politically correct nonsense which dominates British politics these days.