http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147486739A Solution to California's Prison Problem
Date: 9/14/2009 8:52:46 AM
by Bryan Fischer, AFA Director of Issue Analysis
California is getting ready to release 37,000 prisoners to cope with its budgetary crisis. This is politically problematic, since Californians vote to get tough on crime when they get the chance.
California cannot resolve this problem without grappling with the proper role of government. According to the Judeo-Christian tradition, God-ordained government has one primary role: justice. Everything it does is secondary to that responsibility.
Job one for government is to punish those who harm their fellow-citizens in their health or property, to catch the bad guys and lock them up so that responsible citizens can enjoy domestic tranquility.
According to Romans 13:4, government’s primary job is to serve as “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” Bottom line then is that the last place California should look to balance its budget is getting soft on crime.
But California seems prepared to keep virtually all of its wasteful and ineffective welfare programs, which are not even appropriate uses of government resources, and abandon its primary function, which is to protect its citizens from the 37,000 convicts they getting ready to turn loose.