Smith: `Bush's mega prison system simply stinks'

Smith: `Bush's mega prison system simply stinks'

There is something "stinking" in Texas and it is not a dried up cactus. It is Texas Gov. George W. Bush's mega prison system that holds more inmates than any of America's 50 states, Ald. Ed H. Smith (28th) said Thursday.

Referring to a recent study that said Texas has more prisoners than any state in the nation filled with mostly Black young men, Smith said: "I think it's terrible...wrong to have all those people in jail. Why does Texas have the biggest prison in the country?

"Anybody can be tough on crime, but, not everyone can put in a program that will reform people and make them productive," said Smith. "I think Bush's prison system stinks.

When you have people being dragged behind cars and killed because they are Black..., something is wrong," he said referring to James Byrd whose dragging death by white racists in Jasper, TX shocked the nation.

According to Gore, he has a plan that would include stronger gun laws, putting even more community police on the streets, an overhaul of the nation's justice system to "shut the revolving door for violent repeat offenders, revolutionizing our overloaded court system with more prosecutors and public defenders and a continued investment in community and juvenile crime prevention programs."

Gore vowed to test prisoners for drugs while they are incarcerated and to "break up the drug rings inside our prison system." He also vowed to expand drug treatment within the prisons and to make the inmates a "simple deal: before you get out of jail, you have to get clean, and if you want to stay out, then you'd better stay clean."

Smith also said Bush should stop executing people but rather spend taxpayers dollars on rehabilitating them. "Spend those dollars to try and reform these folks, not kill them with this death penalty...."

While Smith also wants Bush to "come clean" about his alleged former problem with drugs, Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) said: "That's not an issue. He's over that...cured. People put that stuff aside. A lot of people went through those kinds of things and are good law-abiding citizens.

"I don't think that is much of an issue as much as what will he be able to do with this country, and some of his policies dealing with his position on the death penalty, child care and who he will appoint to the Supreme Court..." are far more important, Burnett said.

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