What Gives a Murderer the Right to Protest Prison Conditions?

It's the very heart of the "Obamacare" health care debate. Does everyone in America deserve equal access to health care? Poor people? Kids? Rich people? Sick people? If you nodded at all of these, how about convicted child rapists, or any other prisoner languishing in prison?That made you pause, didn't it? Don't feel too badly, you're in good company.
And all because people want to save some money? OK, a lot of money. I get it. I live in a state that's in a shambles financially. On a personal level, this is where my fiscal conservatism meets my social liberalism like two freight trains rushing at each other at high speed. Needless to say, I have whiplash. I don't want to pay millions of dollars for someone in prison, someone who raped a child maybe. And yet, what I want and what is right are two different things. There are challenges that prisoners family should chip in, and yet, how is that fair? They aren't the prisoner, they aren't the ones responsible in the end for his well-being, he is. And yes, they landed in prison and screwed up royally. Some have done one of the worst things a person can do. But they are in prison as a guest of the California State Department of Corrections.
They have no means to make money, no means to hold down a job to get their own health insurance. Sure they put themselves there, but numerous court cases have proven that when the state takes on the responsibility of housing a prisoner, they take on the responsibility of providing for their basic human needs -- food, clothing, shelter, and health care. It's set up that way because the very point of incarceration is to take away an inmate's ability to go out and provide for himself for the sake of the general public. We, as taxpayers, pay for these sickos not for their sakes but for our own, because keeping them in prison is better for us and, in this case, for our kids than allowing them out to work, to earn, and to pay for their own health care.
The argument comes down to whether health care is a basic right. The anti-Obamacare folks will tell you it's not. But consider this: you ignore your child's heart condition because you can't afford to have it treated. You could take them to the doctor, throw yourself on the mercy of the system, and go into debt for it, but you don't want to. You have no money, and you're just going to let the cards fall where they may. Would that be right? Would that be humane?
Now substitute child for prisoner. Sure, one is innocent, one criminal. But they share the same markers -- unable to take care of themselves, stuck depending on the mercy of someone else. We, as taxpayers, we must be merciful, lest we become monsters ourselves. Christian Alexander Gomez may have given the people of California an easy out by dying, but the people who pushed him there should be ashamed of themselves. They're no more "human" than him.

I don't watch tv anymore. What's the big deal? TV is a BOOB tube. You become a boob by watching it.

"Why is it that prisoners believe they should have access to decent health care, free legal services and education when those things are really hard for many law abiding citizens to obtain?"...
This is an argument for better and more affordable access to healthcare by law abiding citizens, not for denying that access to prisoners.

"But then again, I'm not comfortable with the notion of locking people up in cells and leaving them to waste away, either."

That may apply to petty criminals, but MURDERS?

I agree, it's a prison. They don't need a TV, computer, etc. but one thing THEY DO NEED is room to breathe.
OVER CROWDING is not excusable just because they are in prison.
The immediate need is to give all of them more SPACE!!!

I believe we should bring back the death penalty and start killing them.get them out of the system. These are evil people..and do not deserve to exist.

That is one wishy washy commentary. Lock em up, no, treat them good. jeez, they are in fricking prison. 3 hots and a cot, NOTHING more.

Well for now at least BUILD MORE PRISONS until we can figure out a better system, educational program, treatment, idea, method, gather more resources, etc.
For sure over crowding is not a good thing in any institution.
So the IMMEDIATE solution is YES, to build more prisons.

Murderers deserve 52 inch HD flat screens, Filet Mignon, Playstations, Lobster, all the best California has to offer. Signed Nancy Pelosi.