Red State Justice

They were imprisoned for life for a crime that, at most, should have netted them a couple of years behind bars. When they were young, Jamie and Gladys Scott facilitated a robbery that netted the robbers $11. The women had no prior criminal history. No one was killed and the boys who actually committed the robbery escaped with a few months in jail after fingering the young women in a plea-bargain. But the sisters were sentenced to life.

Now, sixteen years later, Governor Haley Barbour is releasing the Scott Sisters from prison. But it’s not for the reasons you might suspect. They aren’t being released to right a long-ago wrong. They’re being released because th eldest sister, Jamie Scott, requires dialysis treatments which are costing the State of Mississippi about $200,0000.00 a year, and the younger of the two sisters has agreed to donate one of her own kidneys in exchange for their freedom:

After mulling over the matter for several months, Gov. Barbour announced in late December that he would not pardon the sisters, but would instead indefinitely suspend their sentences.

Gov. Barbour said he had acted in part out of concern over Jamie Scott’s health, but also to relieve the state of the cost of her dialysis treatment, approximately $200,000 a year.

“The Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society,” Mr. Barbour said in a Dec. 29 statement. “Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott’s medical condition creates a substantial cost to the state of Mississippi.”

That’s some mighty fine Christian compassion for ya!

Serolf Divad
1:22 pm • Friday • January 7, 2011
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3 Comments

Dave H

2:08 pm • Friday • January 7, 2011

I think this just proves that we’re edging ever closer to commercializing the harvesting of prisoner’s organs. Once the private corporations that house most prisoners decide to grab the up-front money instead of settling for a long, drawn-out payoff over decades, the glut of prisoners in the US will disappear.

Anyone else see the article in “the Atlantic” about the growth of a new nation for the global plutocrats? It looks like if you’re like me and haven’t made your first billion yet you’re no more than a waste of resources.

hunkamonkiman

2:12 pm • Friday • January 7, 2011

As I can never know how serious a post will be when I read through the first time on this blog, “fingering the young women” confused me for a bit.

Serolf Divad

@Dave H:

You haven’t made your first billion yet? WTF, man! Get with the program.

While I haven’t yet, either, I’m reasonably certain that I’ll be a billionaire as soon as Stinque really takes off!