Where did the meme come from that civil disobedience requires you to sit in jail afterwards?

[PorridgeGun]

183. Thank you. I attempted to report everything to anyone who would listen

Unfortunately everyone in any position of authority knew what was up and would listen, sigh, nod, and nothing would get done. Try to cause too much trouble and you get moved around. Those who were disgusted by the whole thing either never got promoted or, far more often, quit in disgust as soon as they could. I fell into the latter group. I stopped working for the state of CA and moved back to the UK quite a few years ago.

There were journo's who listened, but they were from MJ, The Nation etc - magazines who were already publishing letters from convicts about the conditions they were experiencing.

To his credit, former Gov. Schwarzenegger attempted to take on the prison guards union. He got more than he bargained for and didn't have the support of legislators who were either repubs (who openly praise the system, of course) or democrats who knew the guards union could cost them their jobs in the next election by running targeted ads. They have a stranglehold on the state legislature and have been milking it for all its worth with overtime, bloated pensions and lobbying for laws that cause mass incarceration. They waste billions of dollars every year that could be far better spent elsewhere.

The sad thing is that both Senators are otherwise reasonably solid D's. Unfortunately Feinstein has a mile wide authoritarian streak and has openly undermined efforts to reform 3 strikes or pass laws stopping the incarceration of small time meth pushers. She appeared in an ad in some state election, maybe '08, and called a law which would have caused the diversion of small time meth users into community and rehab programs "the drug dealers bill of rights."

I guess Boxer just goes along with it as the junior senator, not wanting to contradict Feinstein in any way.

When you've got friends like that :p.. as they say.