Over the weekend we read a piece about the cost of jails and how in Iowa inmates might be required to pay for their own toilet paper --
comes now, Steve Bosquet, who used to be a great TV reporter in South Florida, and he has done a feature on inmates doing their own cooking.
The main point of the article, linked below, is that Florida is wisely, they say, eliminating the privatization of food costs (by contracting out to expensive vendors) and instead having inmates prepare their own foods. This should save the state, they hope, ten million dollars.
If you saw the piece about how much money we are spending on new jails, why not spend money on a stimulus package that generates jobs and income for those companies that provide to jails and its inmates services which could be used post release, from vocational to job training skills. And provide for more counselors and therapists to work with inmates while they are still being supervised, including expanding in custody drug and alcohol counseling programs.
Maybe then we would need less jails down the road. Just thinkin'
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IF they can get away with it...great, but I'll suggest something that would really save money in the prisons = no toilet paper at all. Install bathroom bidet sprayers in all the toilets and all they'll need is a towel to dry off. It's cleaner, cheaper (yes for those who just have to object to everything water is cheaper than toilet paper!), it's better for the environment and it has health benefits like lessening hemorrhoids which would save even more money. If they object? Tough! You're a prisoner! Besides after they try it, like most people, they will like it. As Dr. Oz said on Oprah: "if you had pee or poop on your hand, you wouldn't wipe it off with paper, would you? You'd wash it off" This is a logical, doable and simple way to save allot of money and actually improve the prisoners living standards. But of course like all new ideas people will find countless silly and inane objections, that is the way of things. Theses sprayers are available at www.bathroomsprayers.com I installed mine myself, easy.
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