in a worse case senerio, does anyone one have an opinion as to what will happen to the overcrowded prisons? if they have no electricity or food would they be set free?

-- joshchurch (joshchurch@aol.com), August 27, 1998

Answers

see the thread on "concentration camps"

-- joe inmate (joe@sanquentin.com), August 27, 1998.

In the worst case, I think that the guards would start letting out the ones convicted of non-violent crimes and try to keep the murderers and rapists locked up. Then, after the guards had taken the last of the food home for their families, I think they would go from cell to cell shooting the ones that they couldn't release.

-- Max Dixon (Max.Dixon@gte.net), August 27, 1998.

Actually, I heard about a plan to set all of the prisoners free in the countryside. That way, they can take over all the homesteads from the Y2K "Head for the Hills" groups and keep them all from coming back to the cities when the "crisis" is over.

-- agent714 (secret@cia.com), August 27, 1998.

Seriously, DOES anyone out there have genuine knowledge about continency plans for prisons should a worse case materialize?

-- Faith Weaver (faith-weaver@usa.net), August 28, 1998.

I have a contingency plan. It makes a loud noise.

-- Dave (dave22@concentric.net), August 29, 1998.

Uh, the reason I ask, Dave, Max, other pals, is that one of our family members is imprisoned. I've been corresponding with prisoners all over the United States for over 20 years, and know that just as with any population, the prison population made of a mix good and bad, innocent and guilty. The number of truly violent and evil prisoners, contrary to media distortion, is really very small. Prisoners are PEOPLE--very human beings--with moms and dads, brothers and sisters, wives and children who love them and live for their freedom. And I'll tell you something else, too: Imprisonment is often a luck-of-the-draw deal, depending on who has the bucks, and whose family knows the judge, and just where it is you happen to be when you trip over the line that separates citizen from felon. Look at the difference a few city blocks can mean in, say, Washinton, D.C. for example, or in Greater L.A. You aren't under the impression that the justice system is unfailingly just and free of corruption, are you? Prisoners are the one group remaining in this country about whom it is just fine to make jokes, to belittle and dehumanize, to publicly hate, to stereotype without challenge, to torture without consequence. That doesn't mean it's okay to shoot or starve them, my friends. Those of us who love someone behind bars are terrified at what the y2k scenarios may mean for them. Your attempts at humor have fallen a bit short, as have your perceptions of the reality of the situation.

My request for information still stands. If anybody out there has inside information of any State or local government's plans, please post it or send it to me via email. Thank you.

-- Faith Weaver (faith-weaver@usa.net), August 29, 1998.

America, land of the free, imprisons a higher percentage of its population than any other country on earth. Were number one, were number one! Go team go!

This absurd situation is the result of the highly vocal puritan morality mavens, whose insistence on the punishment of consensual crimes would be humorous, if the results where not so tragic. We have allowed them to create a vast force of Clergymen with billyclubs who pry into peoples private lives, circumvent the Constitution, and turn neighbor against neighbor in their battle for the souls of the American public. It is not important that you have injured nobody other than yourself with your behavior, you must be punished for your immoral actions.

Woe be unto you if your choice of social intoxicants does not match up with the sanctioned list, if you are caught with one of these verboten substances you will be thrown in the clink. In most cases you will serve much stiffer sentences than you would if you had simply bopped someone on the head while liberating them of their wallet.

This hypocrisy was brought home to me in vivid detail one evening while flicking through the channels of the mind candy machine. I happened to stop on an episode of Cops where the vice squad was celebrating the arrest of some druggies by getting sh*t faced at a local tap room. Hmmm, I wonder how they drove home? Oh well at least they where not breaking any laws. (Good thing that pesky prohibition is a thing of the past)

Faith, I empathize with your situation, not everyone held in the gulag is a violent scumbag deserving what they are getting. Hopefully when things go south and food becomes scarce, prison officials will let the non violent offenders go and keep the really nasty ones to meet the fate that they truly do deserve.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), August 29, 1998.

Faith, my sister is in prison. In the Utah State Correctional facility at Draper, Utah. I visited her yesterday.

-- Max Dixon (Max.Dixon@gte.net), August 30, 1998.

I'm not sure where I read it, it's been some time...but the jist of the projection was that because of the rate at which the good old US incarcerates folks, soon , if not already EVERYONE will know someone in prison,..EVERYONE will have someone they know and love imprisoned. Sounds likely that central authority will break down before EVERYONE is named a criminal in one way or another....

remember: "All that is not forbidden is mandatory"

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), August 31, 1998.

Frankly, some might die if you don't start getting the word out to the papers and your STATE and COUNTY representatives.

Without your publicity, they will die.

1. Electrical gates can't/won't open. => Guards can't get in to let them out, guards can't get to protect them, they can't get out to protect themselves. 2. fire protection/water/power/survellience will be lost. HVAC is lost. Heat is lost. Lights are lost. (Minutes/hours/days?) 3. Food/water is lost for more then hours= they die if not released. 4. They are killed by fellow inmates in ritos. They riot and are killed (Attica) by people/police/guards trying to protect the public in self-defense from the criminals.

How many HOURS of fuel do the prisons and jails have? How much food they they keep on hand?

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 31, 1998.

I'm sorry about your sister, Max. She, and all the imprisoned and their families are in constant prayers. On my last visit, I noticed manual locks next to all the electronic doors. Of course this particular facility is only a few years old. Hoping the last guard to leave gives the keys to one of the known good guys. Thanks to all who have sent private messages.

-- Faith Weaver (faith-weaver@usa.net), August 31, 1998.