After reading Lois Henry's excellent article about the financial and bureaucratic mess that has our sheriff in consternation over how to resolve jail overcrowding, I spent some time reflecting on what is wrong with our system and how could it be fixed.  I am hardly an expert, but perhaps I can inspire some dialog, which might reach appropriate ears and spur some change.  Or, I can eat another of my Christmas chocolates... Well, since typing burns more calories, I think I'll pontificate for a bit--save the chocolate for afterwords...

The following is my IMHO...

I feel we overuse our jails and prisons.  We jail all sorts of offenders, even offenders who commit victimless crimes, non-violent crimes, and crimes of morality (such as possession of drugs or prostitution).  I agree that such people should be punished.  It's just that our present method of punishment is more trouble than it's worth. 

Instead, jail and prison should be reserved for the truly violent and unrehabilitated;  people who absolutely must be removed from society because they are a danger to themselves or others.  Such people would be those who are likely to re-offend or commit another related crime, or have committed a violent offense. 

All others should be punished by various means including, fines, public service, or counseling/rehabilitation/education, or a blend of the above.  Those people should only go to jail then, if they do not keep the terms of their recognizance, or are unlikely to do so. 

Additionally, jails and prisons are where criminals are concentrated, so naturally they become graduate schools for the criminal mind.  I am certain that many come out worse than they were before.  This is because no heed is paid to genuine rehabilitation efforts in California.  We're content to let offenders rot, regardless of the crime, and if they could be saved.  A robust rehabilitation effort, combined with clients footing their own bill by paying out-of-pocket, or completing service, should both reduce strain on our budget as well as reduce crowding.  Save taxpayers dollars too!  Finally, goodness forbid that rehabilitation efforts might actually work in some percentage of cases and we return a changed man to society (instead of a more criminally educated one). 

Finally, we must have social transition programs available so the convicted can be reintroduced to society with a greater degree of success.  I am sure most criminals don't want to go back to prison, and might actually tow the line if given a fair opportunity to work and earn a basic living, while under supervision (probation/parole).  The alternative is to turn these people lose without skills, coping mechanisms, or lifelines of any kind, and where can they go but to commit depredations against YOU and I.

We see that using these facilities as dumping ground for what many consider "human waste" isn't a viable long-term or humane solution.  It sounds nice and appropriately harsh, and it's certainly popular and easier to endorse than considering a humanitarian program that converts inert human potential into active and productive inputs to society--but it can be done and to the benefit of all. 

Not every criminal can or should be saved, but many of the ones we punish today we over-punish and abandon as if there are no consequences to acting in such a way.  Fact is, my friends, if our policies are clear failures, and lead to repeated offenses, then we as a society are partly complicit in the crimes that occur. 

We must remove the worst, we cannot release the unrehabilitated, and we must facilitate the productive return to society of all those whose situation requires it, lest they return to evil ways at our expense. 

We cannot regard our correctional facilities as mere dumping grounds where we proverbially sweep our mess under the rug and ignore it gone.  As pointed out in Lois's article, such things have a habit of coming back to our doorsteps to haunt us...

Time for a chocolate.

:-)

MP