This is an important story from the Star. The lead-in shows that even Texas is rethinking its criminal justice system. It's time we realize here that prisons have failed -- either we radically revamp them or we replace them. If we want to lower crime let's use an evidence based approach. If we just want to make political noise then, ok, but try to not make crime worse with badly thought our 'tough on crime' initiatives. Remember when medicine used magic it didn't work -- the same thing is true for law.
http://mobile.thestar.com/mobile/NEWS/article/668064
A real-estate guide to incarceration
Jim Rankin
Staff Reporter
Texas is looking for jail guards and offering $1,500 recruiting bonuses for those willing to move to understaffed prisons. The need is not surprising in a state with the highest incarceration rate, in a country with such fervour for imprisonment that one in 100 adult males sits in jail.
But here's the news: Soaring prison costs – and neighbourhood maps that show where inmates come from and return to, and the underlying social conditions in those areas – have caused policy makers, Republican and Democrats alike, to rethink this love affair. "It's such a socio-economic concern. Inmates come from poor neighbourhoods, and they go back to neighbourhoods, and it just happens that they have some of the worst schools, worst health-care delivery system," says Texas Sen. John Whitmire, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
"How do you fix that? It's a generational deal, almost," he says. "But, that don't mean you don't try."
Instead of building prisons, Texas is investing in programs to keep people out of jail.
Similar thinking is occurring in Wisconsin, where the prison population is projected to go up by one-quarter within the next decade, and in seven more states with out-of-control prison bills, including Michigan, Kansas and Nevada.
2 comments:
Here is the difference Morton.
The citizens of the USA want criminals to be punished and punished harshly. The elections of judges, prosecutors and sheriffs make this a democratic way of doing things.
But here in Canada, where the people want harsh sentences for serious crime, the people have no say in the matter. In Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada has pushed it's party ideology on all Canadians and Canadians cannot do anything about it. Nothing. Zip. Zilch.Nada. No elections. No way to kick out corrupt judges. No way to kick out corrupt prosecutors. No way to do anything but just sit back and think how shameful it is to be Canadian. A county that has silenced it's people to the point where only 50% vote in federal elections. Canadians have lost hope, realizing that NOTHING will change anything in this corrupt country.
Harper is no different than all the other clowns that have preceded him.
How can Canadians sit back and take the beating when there is no accountability anywhere for anything?
Canadians get to cast ONE ballot every few years that does nothing but keep a bunch of elitists in power.
Canadians are powerless to do anything and we know it.
That's why we watch American politics instead of our own.
Oh and I forgot one thing Morton. You Liberals have tried to ram down people's throats that putting criminals in jail DOESN'T deter crime.
Clearly that's a lie. If a criminal is in jail, he cannot commit any further crime, therefore crime is being reduced automatically.
It's common sense Morton.
Putting people in jail is the ONLY way to reduce crime. Your theory and the theory you teach in law school is only to keep you defense lawyers busy.
Mitigating circumstances are a defense lawyers dream.
But telling people that jailing criminals doesn't reduce crime is an outright lie.
It's common sense.
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