Give an organ, take six months off: Legislation in South Carolina reported here last week by Seanna Adcox would allow prisoners to donate organs and bone marrow in exchange for up to six months off their sentences. The "organ recipient and charitable groups" would pay for the operation and overtime of the guards. Jon Ozmint (Corrections Department Director) explained that the lifers would want to donate because they know they would die in prison. An opposing view was posted this week on a blog by the editors of Foreign Policy and written by Carolyn O'Hara. She called the proposal an "[incentive to donate] a kidney in a coercive fashion, just as a monetary payment would....this is just another way of getting one class of society to provide for the health of a wealthier class..."

Standstill: A bill to end the death penalty which received a 5-5 vote in a Maryland Senate committee will not make it to the Senate floor, according to a story in The Washington Post by John Wagner. Maryland currently has a moratorium on the death penalty until lethal injection procedures are revised. There have been a variety of suggestions as to what Governor Martin O'Malley should do, including appointing a "study commission (on the death penalty) by executive order," or, heaven forbid, letting the voters decide.

Carnivals...sex offenders need not apply: Illinois is trying to pass legislation that would prohibit sex offenders from working at county fairs according to an article by Mike Riopell. House Bill 156 won 110-0 in the House Thursday and will be voted on by the Senate.