Reforming California's criminal powerhouse

By Nick Berman

With Gray Davis in gubernatorial jeopardy and California in an intense fiscal peril, we need workable options to help avoid the potential for financial ruin and give the democrats a leg up in the recall.

If we could only implement a concept that does not involve raising taxes, car registration or cutting the money spent on other sectors such as education. If only we could tap an unused potential that could be economically robust—well, using the vast education garnered from the Fresno Unified School District. I have conceived the perfect solution. We will put the prison populations to work.

The prison populations of California, while reaching record numbers, are a portion of society that can still contribute while being rehabilitated. The potential candidates, who would be voluntary, would be set up on treadmills and bicycles attached to generators, which will charge and store energy. A single person pedaling on a stationary bicycle at a moderate pace can create enough power to run a small appliance, like a lamp or television. Larger groups can create staggering loads of energy.

This will generate more than enough power to sustain the prisons, which will lower the costs of the Department of Corrections, and thus alleviate some costs our state must pay. The excess can be used for any number of applications. The state can offer it at a more competitive rate than that of Pacific Gas and Electric or other power companies, thus providing its citizens with smaller energy bills. Less money spend on expenditures, will allow spending in other areas, which will help boost our economy further. Of course the Energizer bunnies—I mean inmates—will be reimbursed for their troubles, the state pays inmates on work furloughs approximately 7 to 10 cents an hour, so we will offer roughly the same income and reap a wondrous gain also. They can pedal 10 hours per day, make a dollar and provide the state with a valuable commodity.

For those who are serving sentences for “white collar” crimes we could even offer a slight reduction in their sentence for reaching certain wattage levels. I think if a prisoner can pedal and run enough to “pay their debt to society,” perhaps a year could be commuted off their sentence or perhaps a few months. I’m not saying to parole rapists, but certain other offenders that have committed crimes like tax evasion might benefit from this offer. This method of enticement will have people focused and working diligently, and also will be supplying the state with a service, all the while using a percentage of the population that generally is a complete drain on the taxpaying public.

With this simple and workable plan, we can help to combat the situation that has caused our state such turmoil. While giving our more “savory” members of society some initiative to help in the maintaining of the public welfare. The use of convicts as alternative energy should continue past the end of the deficit, rendering energy costs lower for all those who happily house them with our taxes and stabilizing California in the future against such occurrences. Just to think, I was once ashamed to have a family member in prison…

— This columnist can be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu