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 - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom