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Article: Life behind bars. (rising prison population ) (Editorial)
- Article from:
- The Progressive
- Article date:
- July 1, 1993
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 The Progressive, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The public schools can go begging. So can the health-care system and providers of social services. But hard-pressed state governments everywhere keep managing to find the money to build prisons. Construction firms that used to build hospitals and college dorms and government office buildings--especially in the South--can't find work like that anymore. Instead, they build prisons. As former Governor Bob Martinez, a Florida Republican, said on the campaign trail in his 1990 re-election bid--a losing one--"We have to build prisons. . . . It's not just putting away prisoners. It creates employment."
At a recent Tampa gathering of criminal-justice professionals, ...