Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A life of crime

Life goes on. And so does the pain from a toothache. I've been to the dentist; x-rays were taken, but nothing could be concluded as the infection hasn't reached the point of being visible in black & white. Best guess is that it's the result of a leaking crown on top of an old fractured tooth. So, for now, it's antibiotics and drugs that don't quite take the pain away. Truth is…they don't touch the pain, but they do befuddle me. On the positive side, the pain gives me instant clarity when it flares up, so between the two of them, I might be 'normal'. Normal is nice.

Interesting; the big news in California is that federal judges have ruled that the prisons here must reduce their populations by 55,000 in just 3 years. This is the same prison system that has no rehabilitation programs. And even if there were such programs, you have to wonder about the chances for employment that a just released felon has. Slim to none? But that won't bother the judges; the problems caused by this move will be for others to solve.

It seems to me that the best way to solve it is to revisit the laws that send people to prison. Mandatory sentencing makes no sense at all and should be abolished. It's the same for the '3-strikes' crime laws. The majority of drug crimes are simply misdemeanors and should be treated as such. Just a simple review of the statistics on crime and punishment should enable the legislators to come up with something better. Right!

No comments:

Post a Comment