Pubdate: Tue, 16 Apr 2013
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Joseph Maizlish

CROWDING OUT JUSTICE

Re "Brown vows fight over prisons," April 13

Federal courts have found the overcrowding and inmate healthcare in 
California's prisons intolerable, even though Gov. Jerry Brown says 
officials are "doing the best job possible." Maybe they're both right 
and it's the justice system itself that is beyond correction and 
rehabilitation.

Our high-imprisonment system has taken decades to build. It has been 
fed by harsher sentences without regard for recidivism or public 
safety; guilty pleas extorted from low-level offenders under pressure 
from multiple charges that carry long prison terms; the addiction of 
law enforcement and elected officials to the war on drugs; and 
released offenders who can't get a job or the public assistance they 
need to live.

Any advance toward creating a justice system based on public safety 
rather than punitive tough talk would serve us all.

Joseph Maizlish

Los Angeles
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