It’s early. I’m not sure why I woke up so early; maybe it was because I knew I would have to fight the coffeemaker once again and needed a head start on the morning. In fact I just finished making the coffee by taking boiling water and pouring it through the coffee maker. It’s not as good…it went through the filter and grounds too fast, but it’s certainly better than nothing.
More on the fallen Valley oak; I spoke to the previous owner of our house regarding the ownership of the fence that had been crushed and he mentioned that this oak tree had been grown from an acorn from the famous Hooker Oak, a northern California icon. I also heard that the neighbor had installed the fence under some duress and so now I wonder if we are going to see it repaired. The property is going to be for sale soon and they may not want to bother with fixing the fence at all. Or; after so many years, doesn’t the fence become shared property? I guess I will let the insurance company handle it…But I will want to salvage some acorns before this whole episode is over with.
Naturally, prisons are back in the news once more. And I was reading an article about California’s prison problems. Some facts: The current prison population stands at 172,000 and they are housed in facilities designed to hold 90,000. That number, 172,000, is more than the total number of prisoners in Germany and Britain combined. The imprisonment rate has risen 800% since 1970 and far exceeds any European country. And worse; two thirds of all prisoners are returned to prison within 3 years of their release. So much for rehabilitation. Our acting governor added the word, “Rehabilitation” to the Department of Corrections two years ago, but no money was allocated for the purpose. Now, because of the failure of the “3 strikes” law, the state can look forward to seeing 21,000 additional prisoners within the next 5 years.
What I find especially irritating is the fact that as soon as these horrific figures make the news, the politicians all point to the Correctional officers as being the source of all of these embarrassing problems. None of them will admit to the fact that it is the legislators and the governor that are in charge of the prisons; not the officers.
You would think that after proving that our methods of dealing with the “war on drugs” and the “war on crime” are a grand failure, our acting governor would want to explore some other options; but no…he has come up with a $5.8 billion dollar plan to add more prisons. Of course those new prisons will require even more of those pesky officers.
The problem Steve is that rather than rehabilitation we nee prevention. Once kids get in the system they only become sophisticated criminals. There is a three legged stool that supports succesful criminal justice policy, that is prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation. The jails do a goo job keeping bad people from getting to me and you. The problem is that we need to fix the ills of society that create the offender.
ReplyDeleteWhit and I learned why crime in Maine is so low. They don't arrest people. There were so many drunks on the road it would make you head spin. Things people in California would be arrested for are often overlooked and the criminal told to move on.
I think community corrections will be the rally cry here in the next ten years.