On Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:50:55 -0400, Dudley Henriques
wrote:

I take it you heard the one about the inmates in a prison

Oh, you must be referring to the fact that the states of California
Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan and Oregon spend more on
prisons than education.


http://www.aclunc.org/news/opinions/prison_vs._education_spending_reveals_california's _priorities.shtml
For the first time, and unique among large states, California will
soon spend more on its prisons than on its public universities. It
has been projected that over the next five years, the state's
budget for locking up people will rise by 9 percent annually,
compared with its spending on higher education, which will rise
only by 5 percent. By the 2012-2013 fiscal year, $15.4 billion
will be spent on incarcerating Californians, as compared with
$15.3 billion spent on educating them. Yet, despite this historic
increase in prison funding, leading legislators -- including
supporters of the increase -- and even Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's office agree that this is simply throwing good
money after bad, given the rank mismanagement plaguing
California's corrections system.

More prison spending will mean better pay for the highest paid,
most politically influential prison personnel in the nation, as
well as more prisons, but no one is certain it will result in a
better corrections system. ...

Who is going to make it right? Even public officials who know this
budget priority is wrongheaded refuse to fight it, preferring to
pander to prison personnel and afraid of appearing "soft on
crime." The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once observed: "Cowardice
asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is
it politic?' Vanity comes along and asks the question, 'Is it
popular?' "

"But," King added, "Conscience asks the question 'Is it right?' "
...




http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/...iativeID=31336
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/....aspx?id=35904
More than 1 in 100 American adults are behind bars.

And when it comes to our nation's military spending vs education
spending ...