Prison should rehabilitate or isolate. We have idiot kids that want to go to prison and once there, never want to return. Or, they need to be caged and forgotten until burial. Fine with me.

Wait a few years, newbie CO. Prisoners play games and you’ll have to be careful. They have nothing to lose. You do.

And, no, I wasn’t serious.

Then again - sending it to one person you really didn’t like might be - um, never mind.

I’m guessing that would lead to prisoners being water-boarded, tazed, or some other method to extract who their “contact” was.

I realize you’re not serious Phoenician, but that could lead to serious problems…

The temptation here is to try finding out the names of, say, half the prisoners in one place, and send them each a postcard.

The postcard would be filled with randomly generated letters, arranged in groups of five, and sent from an anonymous source. Let the authorities drive themselves bugshit trying to figure out what is being said and to whom…

Only if you don’t know jack shit about the War on Drugs and the way prostitutes are treated in the justice system.

Only if you don’t know jack shit about the War on Drugs and the way prostitutes are treated in the justice system.

Restricting the mail of an individual receiving hazardous mail is acceptable. Restricting it for the entire prison is bullshit.

Most people at my workplace seem to hate the ACLU, I’m afraid to ask them if they think the same thing as my co-worker.

I always maintain a bit of amazement that the ACLU can be easily demonized by right wingers, since having your civil liberties is popular on both the left and the right, but I guess the logic worked by right wingers is that they’ll never be the ones seeing their voting rights stripped or their ass thrown in prison for an indefinite period with no charges filed.

You know, I’ve never been able to figure out where the right-wing hatred of the ACLU comes from. Indeed, I didn’t even know it existed until talking to a friend recently (he’s a recovering conservative) who surprised the bejeezus out of me by vehemently bashing the ACLU. Coming from an atheist family (and living in Kansas!), I’ve always thought of the ACLU as a good thing, and it really surprised me that this guy, as big on individual freedom as he is (he identifies as Libertarian/Constitutionalist) could see the ACLU as anything but an ally in the fight against the loss of civil liberties.

I think your explanation’s the best I’ve heard so far; that the right-wing ideas recovering ‘wingers cling to the most jealously are those that prevent them from coming face-to-face with their privilege. So while you might not still be a Bush-supporting, Bible-brandishing neocon, you’ll probably still spend a few more years believing things like “black men commit most crimes,” “affirmative-action beneficiaries are just looking for a handout,” “racism is no longer a problem,” or “reverse discrimination exists.”

Indeed, my friend’s beef with the ACLU is a form of the reverse-discrimination meme: he says it discriminates against Christians.

Have any of y’all encountered this?