What's next? A service charge before you'll be allowed entry into the morgue to identify a stiff? It's amazing to me the life-or-death resistance from a loudmouthed, non-majority portion of the American population when it comes to getting state and federal budgets and debt under control through the obvious solution -- cut the damn spending! (And that, BTW, AIN'T some right-wing principle. Rather it's a common sense one, upon which the majority of American Independents are completely onboard).
Instead, the solution from that non-majority group is always the same: "Raise revenues." Translation: Tax, charge and impose fees on anything that moves, exists, whimpers or shits (so that spending can just continue to grow). And now the State of Arizona is taking that principle to all new lows.
Whatever you do, don't get tossed in the joint down Arizona way. Because that might be the last time you see your family until your bit's up. Arizona is now making family members of cons buy a $25 ticket in order to visit them in the can. (I'm just wondering how man C-notes they charge for a conjugal? And can an extra $50 get you a special VIP seat?)
One woman whose brother is locked in an Arizona freezer told the New York Times that the new fee -- even though allegedly "one time" in nature -- is going to be one tough ticket since the travel costs of visiting the big house are already a financial strain in these rotten economic times. "People will just stop visiting," the woman said.And I can only imagine that there's nothing more constructive for a con than to be completely locked away from his family for years on end. He's making all those wonderful new friends on the inside, after all.
Probably the most despicable aspect of this rotten story is the completely disingenuous pretext under which the State of Arizona has imposed the new ticket system. This phony pretext almost makes George W. Bush's baloney about "weapons of mass destruction" seem palpable:Arizona is calling the new ticket system a "background check fee." Sounds nice. Only problem? When pressed, one state bureaucrat actually admitted that the money won't go towards any "background checks" at all.
Instead, the state intends to use the money to help make up a $1.6 billion state budget deficit. That means sticking the dough in some general fund that might be used for prison upkeep -- or just about any other damn thing the state ultimately wants, if you read between the lines. But they're still gonna call it a "background check fee" even though nary a "background check" will actually be performed. Slimeballs.And coming back full circle to my idea at the top about a morgue identification fee: I wonder what they'll call that one once they get around to imposing it? No doubt something like a "He's Already Dead But We Paid for the Bed" fee. But one time only!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033887/Anger-Arizona-prisons-charge-visitors-25-inmates-help-plug-budget-shortfall.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033887/Anger-Arizona-prisons-charge-visitors-25-inmates-help-plug-budget-shortfall.html
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