Why The Governor Wants More Bars

Colorado Springs - Prisoners are a lot like corn. Like corn, prisoners are a commodity government pays for. That's why Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter wants more prisons, right away. Caught in a public-private entanglement, he serves a ravenous beast that feeds on criminal flesh and gets hungrier by the day. The state needs the beast; the beast needs the state.

When the Bush administration created massive subsidies for private enterprise to make fuel out of crops, the ethanol industry built plants and demanded corn. No corn, no government checks. As a result, we have a nation awash in corn - more corn than anyone ever dreamed we could need. Thousands of farmers, who once produced a variety of foods consumers wanted and needed, now produce only corn. Loads and loads of excess corn that serve no purpose other than satiating an artificial venture which will never stand on its own because it serves no genuine need.

Likewise, when states began paying private enterprise to house prisoners in the 1980s, a new industry built prisons and demanded flesh. No prisoners, no government check. The inmate population grew by leaps and bounds, a surplus generated by the war on drugs and bizarre new sentencing laws that keep non-violent offenders in prison for years. Today, more than one in 100 Americans live behind bars and the United States has more prisoners than any country in the world. Attach government checks to corn, and corn will be grown to fill an artificial demand. Attach government checks to prisoners, and the system will deliver them in droves.
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