We watched Little Dorrit on PBS last night. An adaptation of the over the top serial novel by Dickens. So hard to find anything interesting on tee vee, we will watch next week for sure.
I went on a web tangent this morning, looking into Dickens' work, and the social conditions he outlined so dramatically.
All of his heroines were lower class, while his eccentric, oddly named characters found in both higher and lower classes.
Like one of the many coincidences found in Dickens' stories.....Today I was perusing Dailykos and ran across this, Woman Sentenced to Jail for Sons Crime?
The title is a tad misleading as the woman was not sent to jail for her son's actual crime..No, just for failure and inability to pay the upkeep of his incarceration.
In December 2008, Ms. Nowlin’s 16-year-old son was sentenced to the Bay Pines Center and Ms. Nowlin was ordered to pay $104 per month for his lodging. At the time of this order, Ms. Nowlin was homeless and working part-time with a friend after being laid off from her job. She told the court that she was unable to pay the ordered amount, however the judge found her in contempt for failing to pay. In addition, Ms. Nowlin’s requests for a court appointed attorney were denied.
That's not all of it. Compounding this horrendous misdeed by the court, the poor woman is not only on the hook for the costs of her son, but now for herself.
Since March 3, 2009, Ms. Nowlin has been serving her sentence at the Delta County Jail. On March 6, 2009, she was released for one day to work. Once released she picked up her $178.53 check from work thinking that she now could pay the $104.00 to get out of jail. However, upon her return to jail that evening, the sheriff forced her to sign over her check to the jail to cover $120.00 for "room and board." She was also charged $22 for a drug test and the booking fee.
Does anyone else see a massive black hole in logic here, besides the practise of charging people for their own lockup?
The debtors' prison'shttp://en.wikipedia.org/... major conceptual flaw is that by putting indebted people in prison, society prevents them from contributing their labor and thus make it harder for them to pay it off and thus makes it harder
for creditors to recoup their investment.
Debtor's prison. Like Fleet Prison in Old Londonwhere there were grates built into the walls so that prisoners could beg for money through the bars to pay for their own "upkeep". Private prisons, BTW. Sounds oddly familiar....
In addition to the companiesthat directly manage America's prisons, many other firms are getting a piece of the private prison action. American Express has invested millions of dollars in private prison construction in Oklahoma and General Electric has helped finance construction in Tennessee. Goldman Sachs & Co., Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, among other Wall Street firms, have made huge sums by underwriting prison construction with the sale of tax exempt bonds, this now a thriving $2.3 billion industry.
Weapons manufacturers see both public and private prisons as a new outlet for "defense" technology, such as electronic bracelets and stun guns. Private transport companies have lucrative contracts to move prisoners within and across state lines; health care companies supply jails with doctors and nurses; food service firms provide prisoners with meals. High-tech firms are also moving into the field; the Que-Tel Corp. hopes for vigorous sales of its new system whereby prisoners are bar coded and guards carry scanners to monitor their movements. Phone companies such as AT&T chase after the enormously lucrative prison business.
Some of us here in Canada have been getting that niggly feeling that this kind of thing is the motivation behind Steve's push to get tuff on crime. Well, I am past niggly, it's a sure thing in my opinion.
We could have a field day re-naming all the villains in that racket, couldn't we?
Sarah Palin is a perfect villainousness, we could re-name her something appropriate like Sarah Featherbrain....
The rape-kit controversyis a troubling matter. The insult to rape victims is obvious. So is the sexism inherent in singling them out to foot the bill for investigating their own case. And the main result of billing rape victims is to protect their attackers by discouraging women from reporting sexual assaults.
When most of us read Dickens, we find the stories so dramatic, and the way things were, abhorrent. But it almost seems that when a social conservative or the riff raff that follows them looks at the works of Charles Dickens, that they see a societal blueprint.
Where those in the higher classes are considered of "quality" and the rest are just something that either stands in their way, makes them some cash, or serves them their meals.
The War on Drugs, the use of soldiers in foreign occupations as cannon fodder while Billions in profits are made by the military industrial complex, the medical system that is so far out of reach in the US. You live or die depending on your place in the economic food chain.
We keep asking.... The Fatcat biatches seem aghast that we want MORE!
MORE they say! Then you should EARN IT LIKE we did.....!! Laughable, since many of them were born into it. Or, they have just become so used to their entitlements that they cannot fathom that there is such inequality and misuse of the system, because it's not against them....
'Please, sir, I want some more.'
The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear.
'What!' said the master at length, in a faint voice.
'Please, sir,' replied Oliver, 'I want some more.'
The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arm; and shrieked aloud for the beadle. The board were sitting in solemn conclave, when Mr. Bumble rushed into the room in great excitement, and addressing the gentleman in the high chair, said, 'Mr. Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more!' There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance. 'For more!' said Mr. Limbkins. 'Compose yourself, Bumble, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?'
The time for asking is over. You think?
All the illustrations are 19th Century, and therefore not under copyright.