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Comment by jmathai | Hacker News Reader

Ethics aside, how do you evacuate 1,000 inmates? I assume you'd have to bus them to another facility which had room for them. Seems challenging any way you look at it.

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The South Carolina Department of Corrections has 6,000 employees [0] and SC is in a known hurricane zone. "How do we evacuate in case of a hurricane?" should not be something they have to plan out at the last minute. It should be a procedure in a 3-ring binder in the deputy warden's office.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina_Department_of_C...

Its just 6 buses or so. This isn't challenging at all for government logistics. Heck, its peanuts for campaign event logistics.

I really don't see any excuse. And even if it WAS somehow challenging, tough shit, man. The state is responsible for them whether they like it or not.

Even if you had limited resources, you have to save the inmates before saving the rest. That or open the gates and let them fend for themselves. But as long as they're your prisoner, you're responsible.

I mostly agree with you. However,

> Even if you had limited resources, you have to save the inmates before saving the rest.

This is a real stretch. While the state needs to exercise due care, being convicted does not entitle you to rights that the regular citizenry of the state and employees do not have. In fact, constitutionally-speaking, it's the exact opposite.

You have to save them before the rest because you're removed their ability to save themselves.

Constitutionally speaking, inmates enjoy the exact same rights as anyone else unless specifically limited; and there also exist a variety of statutory ways in which inmates are entitled to certain things the general populace are not (most notably medical care and housing, which are not generally entitlements to citizens or non-citizen residents of the country.)

I have no idea if there is a reason to believe that South Carolina should save inmates first (or last, or...) in a natural disaster.

The constitution does not grant rights. The entitlements you mentioned are not rights, they are the bare minimum necessary to not violate the constitutional requirement that prisoners not be subject to cruel and unusual punishments, which is one of the few rights guaranteed to those convicted of a crime. Americans are constitutionally protected from the government inhibiting their right to free speech, liberty, etc, but the government only has to abide by this if those Americans have not been convicted of a crime. This is clearly stated in the 14th amendment where it is pointed out the government can infringe upon rights by due process of law. For example, criminals do not enjoy the same protection from violations of their right to free speech.

Seeing as the other residents of the county are not being asked to evacuate, it seems a real stretch to claim that the prisoners are being subject to cruel and unusual punishment. The commenter above claimed prisoners ought to be rescued first. However, that doesn't really seem necessary. They should be treated at best like anyone else, because the main charge is that they not be cruelly or unusually punished, and being treated the same in an emergency like a non-prisoner is hardly cruel or unusual.

> The commenter above claimed prisoners ought to be rescued first.

I think it's implied that they should be evacuated first _in the event evacuation is needed_.

Couple heavy aircraft a la con air with Nicolas cage

That’s what they do, yes, as well as with Cyrus.

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