Is Paris burning?

...down there?...And is that why she got out of jail for a minute?
You celebrity-obsessed pinheads, why do you care?!
And if you are a celebrity-obsessed pinhead (who got here by following a link), you may as well hit the BACK button right now, because this is a pure rant.
Rant #1: Do you even care about women in prison unless it's Paris or Martha? Do you have a heart in your chest or a brain in your head? If so, what do you think they're there for? Would you please begin using them sometime, soon?
Rant #2: Letting somebody out of the klink for medical care is called, in corrections-public health jargon, "compassionate release," and it happens approximately never, as in never, ever.

You know you don't have to stick around here to see pics of Paris falling out of her clothes, right? You've got Google Images or whatever for that.
Rant #3: Call the Corporate Media the COMA.
Let's take them in order:
Rant #1 -- Women in prison:
Is this what you think of when you hear or read the phrase "women in prison"? It's not hot, it's not titillating, it's called incarceration, and it's racist and it's violent and it's really, really violent, and it's a lot rooted in the war on drugs and it destroys families and it hurts the children and did I mention that it's racist and tied to the war on drugs?
Rant #2 -- Public health & incarceration:
So you've drunk the koolaid and you think prisoners kick back all day watching cable and filing frivolous lawsuits. The real deal is you have to sue the pants off the sheriff or the DOC just to have conditions of basic human decency, nevermind the Constitution.
In Macon, GA, women were held in virtual slavery to a chicken processing plant while locked up for nonviolent offenses, until they hooked up with free lawyers.
Nobody cares whether you've actually been convicted or are just waiting for your day in court. If you're in jail, you must deserve to be there. If you have a chronic illness, but you were healthy before jail, better get ready to not get your meds and to get sick. You'll only get your pills if you sue 'em, and you can only sue 'em if you can find one of the free lawyers.
Prison health is public health, and you should care.
If you do care, and you want to know more, try going here, or, to donate books, go here.
People who sue prisons and jails to improve conditions (forget about cable TV, it's just about survival!) are here.
Rant #3 -- call the Corporate Media the COMA:
Ain't much to it, just do it. For the rant, go here.

Paris Is Burning. Is Paris Burning?

Tags: law, policy, Paris Hilton, prison, jail, public health.

Comments

[TallSkinny]

Hurray for you for sticking up for basic human decency, even for an odious person like Paris Hilton!

As Clarence Darrow said when he took on the Leopold/Loeb case: "Even the rich are entitled to justice."

[Stein]

Well, truth to be told, I was trying to make a couple points about incarcerated women....But as long as we're there, I'll admit this national hate-in on Paris is the only thing that could have almost made me a fan.
What do you think it is? Is there a redeeming facet to it? -- Like, anti-classism -- as in, Oh, the rich girl has to pay a price?
I'm not sure, but I don't think so. I see the whole media & blogosphere-fuled lust for her to get locked up as wholly reactionary.
People egg each other on to wish harm upon her, and make no mistake, harm is what befalls everyone going into the system, starting at intake, and continuing through discharge, be it three days or three decades.
I only wish I'd had something more articulate than that rant.
Or that I had the confidence that there was a world out there that cared.

[TallSkinny]

I'll admit that I haven't followed this as closely as some people, but I seem to recall that the Sheriff releases people on minor raps to home confinement to comply with some consent decree on jail overcrowding (we have a similar consent decree here.) I think I read something by Geragos to the effect that, if it had been anyone other than Hilton, it would have been no big deal.

Sure, the rich get all the breaks, even with criminal justice, and that's hellishly wrong.

But it looks like Hilton is being used an an example just because she's rich. That's horribly wrong too.

Again, I don't follow the cult of Paris Hilton, and what little I know of her makes me think that, if she showed up at a party I was attending, I'd leave right away. I'm pretty sure I would not like her.

But they shouldn't use human beings as examples. That's always wrong, whether I like the person or not.

[Starry Decisive]

The rant IS a bit ranty, esp. since 3 of the links are to wonky policy white papers -- in PDF no less & no "PDF warning"! But here are some good resources people should check out:
Chgo. Legal Advocacy to Incarcerated Mothers: http://www.claim-il.org/
Chgo. Books to Women in Prison:
http://knikki.wordpress.com/
Prison Activist Resource Ctr.:
http://www.prisonactivist.org/

[Stinkboi]

http://joswift.blogspot.com/2007/06/paris-hilton-phenomenon-socialist.html
Now THAT's a rant. But me thinx it does have the Geragos quote TS is talking about (scroll down -- early release for nonviolent offenders).
Otherwize, try:
http://www.thehotjoints.com/2007/06/08/dont-pick-on-paris/
-- but that one's a little crushed on the celebrity.

[Anita Witness]

I've got two words to say and thats: patti hearst. Am I the only one that is wondering whether Paris will have been RADicalized by the time she gets out of the slammer and be spouting off about "death to the fascist pig Baca" and calling for immediate reform of the L.A. County jail system? I can definitely see Paris being into wearing the TAnia beret! Perhaps she'll rename her lapdog Cinque.

[Stein]

Wow, Anita: that I did not see coming, and I'm a little sensitive to the alternate realities around me. There's only one thing to say about the possibility: That's HOT.

[Zzazh Zzazh]

Stein: Way to go. I want to throw all of that class into exile, therefore my motives for hating on her are pure, but rant on.