Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Outsourced Justice: not blind, but only sees green

I've joked a bit with friends that now, having lived in the deep south for almost a year, I get why southerners are so distrustful of government: they're so terrible at it. There are so many terrible ideas in this piece that I don't know where to start. It's about municipalities down here outsourcing traffic fines and probations. There are a lot of individual sentences in this piece that will leave your jaw agape. Here was one that did it for me:

J. Scott Vowell, the presiding judge of Alabama’s 10th Judicial Circuit, said in an interview that his state’s Legislature, like many across the country, was pressuring courts to produce revenue, and that some legislators even believed courts should be financially self-sufficient.
What kind of an uber-Randian weirdo do you have to be to believe that the courts should generate their own revenue?

1 comment:

Undeadhost said...

That's as far fetched as believing all public transportation bus companies (not sure company is the right word here) should be profitable. Last I checked, there were less than five.

Sorry, just getting caught up on my reading here at the ranch.