Thousands Of People Who We Didn’t Have Time To Interview Are Strongly Against This!

Last night NBC 10 broke — har, har — an important story: The city is giving out condoms to prisoners! To protect them from getting AIDS! Those bastards!

NBC 10 does present this as a “controversial” story, with their shocking graphic (right) letting us know that the city has bought eight thousand condoms. That must have cost, geeze, like a thousand bucks?

Actually, it only costs the city $360 a year, which means when you buy condoms in bulk you get a great deal.

Strangely — at least in the written report — there are no people who are against it, although I suppose a few pro-life groups would be against condoms to protect prisoners when they get raped. Right. But this NBC 10 story is a first: A controversial issue where nobody is actually interviewed who’s against it. I love television.

City Giving Free Condoms To Male Prisoners [NBC 10]

City Sued, Already Gives Up

Not content to be sued once for poor conditions in prisons, the City of Philadelphia was sued again yesterday for conditions in prisons by Penn law prof David Rudofsky.

The city was sued in 1971 for prison conditions and in 1982 for overcrowding in prisons. The city’s prison population is currently at 8,799 — about 1,000 “beyond the rated capacity” of the city’s prisons.

Usually when a lawsuit is filed, the defendants will give a no-comment, will defend themselves and so forth. But perhaps even the city realizes that no beds and no showers is a bit much:

Mayor Street will chair a meeting with representatives from the city courts and the district attorney’s office in the coming weeks, Diaz said.

The lawsuit, he said, is an “opportunity” to work with the criminal-justice community and the plaintiffs on a “comprehensive solution.”

Meanwhile, William DiMascio, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said in a statement yesterday that the city prisons are in “complete disarray,” and he urged all the players in the criminal-justice system to meet in an “emergency summit.”

While the players plan for that “emergency summit” — don’t hold your breath — be sure to check out the comment board for Philly.com, which has turned into repeated suggestions of the death penalty for non-violent crimes and a debate on whether marijuana should be legalized.

City again sued over prison crowding [Daily News]
Comments: City again sued over prison crowding [Philly.com]

Ho ho ho (and a bottle of rum)

All right, kids! Where do you want to see Santa this year? The mall? The basement of your church after mass? A parade of some sort?

Well, you know what, we’re going to somewhere even better: The Prison System’s Training Academy! Yes, Thursday night, from 5-7 p.m., the Philadelphia Prison System’s training facility (across from the defunct Holmesburg Prison, natch). Things don’t really get better than this, do they?

The press release quotes:

“The Training Academy is right across the street from the Enfield and Holmesburg neighborhoods,” said Director of Training Lt. Frederick Abello. “We want to welcome our neighbors and help celebrate Christmas with them this year.” Santa Claus, in the person of Correctional Officer Orlando Carugno, will be on hand to greet children and their families.

You know, I’m all for outreach by the prisons — okay, to be honest I don’t really fathom how anyone could have an opinion on this — but I think it might be some sort of a trap. Doesn’t Santa know all the boys who are naughty and nice? And doesn’t Correctional Officer Orlando Carugno know that as well? (He does.) Don’t you all see it? They’re going to arrest the bad kids! And possibly give the good ones candy canes!

Eh, maybe that’s not so bad. Either way, full non-jokey press release after the jump.

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