Pubdate: Sat, 23 Aug 2003
Source: Port Orchard Independent (WA)
Copyright: 2003 Port Orchard Independent
Contact:  http://www.portorchardindependent.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2607
Author: Dennis Wilken

LOCK UP THE DANGEROUS ONES, HELP THE REST

In one of those reports I like to call a light-on-our-society matter, the 
Associated Press and The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that 
about one in 37 U.S. adults was incarcerated at the end of 2001, or had 
been imprisoned sometime in their adult past.

That frightening, maddening and saddening statistic came from a report 
released by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics this month.

These numbers do not count those who have done jail time for DUI or 
shoplifting, or misdemeanor domestic violence, the three crimes a reporter 
sees most often while covering courts in Kitsap County.

The 5.6 million people in the U.S. who have had "prison experience," either 
current or in their past, according to the Justice Department, did hard 
time in either state or federal prisons.

If those jailed for spousal violence and driving high or drunk were added 
in, the percentage of Americans who have done behind-bars-time might reach 
one in every five adults.

Last month, the Bureau of Justice reported that 2.1 million Americans were 
in federal, state or local custody at the end of 2002.

Between 1974 and 2001, the number of current or former inmates in the U.S. 
rose by almost 4 million people.

Now, I've covered enough violent crime to have moved from anti-death 
penalty to pro-death penalty in some cases. I think murderers, rapists, 
child molesters and armed robbers should go to prison and stay in prison.

But we don't have 2.1 million armed robbers, raypos, chimos, and killers in 
our prisons.

According to the Justice Department, almost 50 percent of the people now 
locked up are incarcerated in connection with some type of drug offense.

We have non-violent marijuana growers, crack cocaine users, and meth heads 
cluttering up our prisons, when what many of them need is treatment, not 
punishment.

If you use violence in the course of selling your drugs, you should be in 
jail. But if all you are doing is supplying a demand, well, isn't that 
capitalism? I don't do hard drugs. I don't smoke pot.

I haven't snorted anything other than nasal spray for my sinuses in 30 years.

I drink red wine with dinner and a beer or two on a hot summer night once 
in awhile.

I don't drink and drive.

It's not about me or mine.

I am still against imprisoning sick people and weak people unless they 
resort to violence.

Lock up the violent and the violently crazy and help the rest.

In a country where one in three people is now overweight and one in five is 
obese, why are we only locking up drug users?

The cost to a society of unhealthy, obese people is staggering. But we 
aren' t locking them up.

Junkies are no different than the chronically obese. They are sick, not evil.

We are a society that is failing the weak among us. For a Christian 
country, we act very un-Christ-like concerning our drug abusers.

And how about all the alcoholics driving around drunk? Why are they less 
guilty than drug users?

Help the junkie the way we now try and help the alcoholic. Let's quit 
punishing the non-violent drug offenders in our midst.

Quit singling them out while ignoring drunks and gluttons.

We should be pursuing the dangerous psychopaths and pedophiles who littler 
our streets with their very presence, not those who need a toke, a snort or 
a shot to see the day through.

They need our help and our prayers, not our condemnation.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom