Pubdate: Tue, 04 Nov 2003
Source: Clarksdale Press Register (MS)
Copyright: 2003, Clarksdale Press Register
Contact:  http://www.pressregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1656
Author: Sam R. Hall

WE MUST SEND THE BAD GUYS A MESSAGE

The new head of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics has made a big splash in
Jackson recently with multiple arrests in connection with some high-profile
murders. 

Grandstanding or not, it's good to see someone step up and take on the drug
problem in the Jackson area - especially when the drug problem is leading to
other crimes, such as murder.

But Melton's actions in Jackson lead to a bigger question: What about the
rest of the state? Is Melton going to get moving to clean up drug problems
in northeast Mississippi or on the Coast? Will he swoop down in those places
to save the day? 

The truth be told, Melton probably feels a connection to the inner city of
Jackson because he has spent so many years working to improve the area and
to give children their shot at a good life. Still, Jackson is only a slice
of the Mississippi pie. For people who live in Forest, they want drugs in
Scott County eradicated. For those who live in Natchez, it would be nice to
see Adams County get a little more state-sponsored help. Ditto for people in
Tupelo and Lee County.

Eighth District Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon appeared at a Forest Rotary Club
meeting recently and told the story of how he purchased his first Chevy
pickup for $3,500. A few decades later here recently, Gordon said, he bought
him a Ford pickup for $38,000.

In all those many years, everything has gone up, he said, except for
across-the-board punishments. The sentence for the theft of that $3,500
truck would have been the same as the theft of his $38,000 truck: a $1,000
fine and five years in prison.

Gordon said he sees the drug problem in Mississippi getting worse by the
number of drug cases that appear before the courts. Furthermore, he does not
believe the conventional-wisdom approach to solving the drug problem is the
end-all answer. 

Education, he said, is not the answer. He knows that reaching the population
most at-risk for turning to crime is not an easy thing, and therefore
education will ultimately fail because it will never be successfully
implemented where it needs to be implemented.

Shame and humiliation through community service and tough rhetoric - even
light sentencing to jail - by judges is not the answer either. Gordon said
when people return to their communities after a short stint in the pokey,
they are viewed as the "Big Man on the block," the guy who has done the time
and isn't scared to do the crime - again.

Gordon said the only real way to curb crime is to put tougher penalties in
place to act as a true deterrent.

"My mother was a good speaker," Gordon said. "When I got in trouble, she
gave me a speech. But my dad, he got a switch. That worked."

Gordon said that if people see that criminals will be arrested, prosecuted
and then sentenced harshly, they will think twice before committing smaller
crimes, much less graduating to more serious and heinous activities.

Still, such an ideal is neither new nor easily implemented, Gordon readily
admits. Even truth-in-sentencing laws that require a person to serve 85
percent of a sentence have a downside: They cost too much. That cost, in
many instances, is borne as a burden by local counties and municipalities.
But Gordon said the answer cannot be to continue to allow criminals to walk
free with light punishments.
 
If we know that cannot be the answer, then someone should go about finding
out exactly what the alternative can and should be.
For Melton's part, he is arresting bad guys, no matter how "bad" they might
be. 

Grandstanding or not, we think that is a good start. But we hope Melton will
take his passion and parlay it into pushing a legislative agenda that would
expand the reach of the MBN to where each county has at least one agent.
Otherwise, we will see little improvement in our war on drugs and crime in
general. 
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MAP posted-by: Josh