Originally Posted By SuperDry Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed that illegal aliens serving time in California state prisons be shipped to Mexico to serve out their time in new prisons there that California would pay to build and operate, at half the cost to do so in California. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100126/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticscaliforniaprisons" target="_blank">http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20...aprisons</a> Assuming that he means only those illegals that are Mexican nationals, I think this is a great idea. He says it could save a billion dollars a year. And, although not typically done for cost reasons, such arrangements happen all the time. It's usually the case when someone get sentenced to prison in some far-off land with different people and customs. In such cases, it's not unusual for the foreign country to agree to repatriate the convicted citizen of another country, if the other country agrees to have the person serve out their sentence in their own prisons. Since presumably these people are going to be deported to Mexico anyway at the end of their sentence, why not speed up the process a bit and save a lot of money at the same time. I'm sure some impoverished area of Mexico would welcome the job opportunity that a new facility in their area would provide.
Originally Posted By Labuda As long as these people are FROM Mexico, I think I'm ok with this - much to my own surprise! lol
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS Its about time. We should not be footing the bill for their foolishness.
Originally Posted By Mr X We don't have any extradition agreement with Mexico? I don't see why we should be paying to jail illegals, even in Mexico. I'd think just deporting them would be sufficient.
Originally Posted By dshyates If we just deport them to Mexico they will be back in the US before the guys that drove them down.
Originally Posted By Mr F Why don't we just Deport them but put shock collars on them, so if they try to hop over the border, they'll get shocked?
Originally Posted By Mr X ***If we just deport them to Mexico they will be back in the US before the guys that drove them down.*** Not if they're in a Mexican jail.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "***If we just deport them to Mexico they will be back in the US before the guys that drove them down.*** Not if they're in a Mexican jail." Not if they weren't put in a jail we built and paid for. dshyates is right, they'd be back in a heartbeat. Schwarzenegger's remark was kind of flippant and offhand, but it's actually gaining some traction with people since he said it.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Not if they weren't put in a jail we built and paid for. dshyates is right, they'd be back in a heartbeat.*** So I take it we DON'T have any extradition arrangement with Mexico? Or are you saying Mexican jails are easy to escape from. If either of the above points (or both of them) are true, how much money is the Mexican government putting up towards dealing with this problem? Is America the only country that actually has to foot their own bills?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< So I take it we DON'T have any extradition arrangement with Mexico? >>> Yes, we do, but it doesn't apply here. An extradition treaty would apply if someone with an arrest warrant in the US were located in Mexico, and we wanted the Mexican government to arrest them and return them to the US (or the other way around). Also, there seems to be some other confusion in this thread. Although the people being talked about are illegal aliens, that's not why they are in prison. We're talking about people that have committed crimes unrelated to them being illegal aliens: things like bank robbery, murder, rape, car theft, and so on. Basically, people that committed a felony in California and were sentenced to more than 1 year incarceration and therefore landed in state prison. We certainly have a deportation arrangement with Mexico, where they accept back their own citizens. But it would be unwise public policy to do this with prisoners. As SPPH pointed out, they'd most likely be back in California very shortly. And even if we had a wall from sea to shining sea, and otherwise perfectly patrolled the border, it would be bad policy to tell people that if you commit a serious crime and are a citizen, you spend years in prison, but if you're from Mexico and here illegally, your only punishment is to be sent home. Prison sentences are as much for their deterrent effect on crime as they are for punishment, and you'd remove both for illegals. And, absent some sort of special arrangement, Mexico is unlikely to arrest and incarcerate their own citizens for crimes not committed in Mexico. Nor is it their responsibility. I think the Gov might possibly have a good idea here.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy I think the prison overpopulation problem is certainly one that needs to be addressed, but is this a solution or just another way to bash immigrants? How about changing some of the sentencing laws that require incarceration for non-violent criminal offenses? How many prisoners could be released if we just looked at reducing punishment for non-violent crime, drug offenses, etc.? Those sorts of policy decisions have a more broad-based impact on the prison population.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I think the prison overpopulation problem is certainly one that needs to be addressed, but is this a solution or just another way to bash immigrants? >>> I don't think it's "bashing" immigrants at all. Based on current law, essentially 100% of the people covered by this proposal will be deported to Mexico at the end of their sentences and not be eligible to legally come back to the US, ever. I don't see any benefit to housing them in CA during their prison terms vs housing them in Mexico.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << I don't see any benefit to housing them in CA during their prison terms vs housing them in Mexico. >> I'm not so sure. I think there is fundamentally something wrong with another government playing a direct role in our law enforcement. I also think it skirts around the issue of our immigration policy and criminal sentencing problems that no one seems to want to address. We're applying parlor tricks to solve problems that aren't going to go away with just a little sleight of hand.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>is this a solution or just another way to bash immigrants?<< I'm the most anti-immigrant-bashing dude I know, and I think this one's legit, in that it's a practical solution to oodles of problems somewhat unique to the California penal system - not just overcrowding. It negates the need to build more prisons staffed by more prison union members, it puts Mexicans in charge of Mexicans (Spanish speaking, more sensitive to cultural stuff), it segregates the Mexican gangs from the other gangs (this is a good thing), and it saves tremendously on operating costs. That being said, I'm all in favor of changing unreasonable sentencing laws, which, like pretty much everything unreasonable and governmenty, California has way too many of.
Originally Posted By mawnck >> I think there is fundamentally something wrong with another government playing a direct role in our law enforcement.<< That's not what we're talking about here. These will be California prisons, just located in Mexico.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << it puts Mexicans in charge of Mexicans (Spanish speaking, more sensitive to cultural stuff) >> I think the Mexicans will be sensitive to the fact that we're incarcerating their citizens and then sending them back to be locked up. Put the shoe on the other foot -- how many times have you seen outrage over U.S. citizens being tried and sentenced in foreign countries? It doens't matter how criminal the act, no one likes to see their citizens in a foreign court system. I don't think this plays well in the general population of Mexico.
Originally Posted By mawnck >> I don't think this plays well in the general population of Mexico.<< Let's cross this bridge if we come to it.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 But these people are already going through our court system. The question is what happens to them after they're convicted; go to a jail here or a jail there.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy What other functions of the state of California should we outsource to foreign countries? It's cheaper, right?
