Washblog || Alternatives to Prison Protect the Community

Alternatives to Prison Protect the Community

By bltfsk
Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 03:22:35 PM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Criminal Justice

Missouri Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff, who chairs the state Sentencing Advisory Commission, in a speech at the New York University Brennan Center, said "...45 percent of those sent to jail or prison -- even for as little as 120 days -- reoffend. But only 19.1 percent of those sentenced to probation or community service commit additional crimes."

==Begin Clips

In a speech last year at New York University Law School's Brennan Center of Justice, Missouri Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff, who chairs the state Sentencing Advisory Commission, noted that 50 percent of inmates in Missouri prisons are non-violent offenders. Working with researchers at the Missouri Department of Corrections and the Department of Probation and Parole, he collected data on offenders convicted of non-violent felony theft.
The data show that 45 percent of those sent to jail or prison -- even for as little as 120 days -- reoffend. But only 19.1 percent of those sentenced to probation or community service commit additional crimes.

Grass-roots community groups, religious service organizations and a growing number of civic-minded lawyers and some prosecuters have become involved in the movement that diverts non-violent offenders from the conventional justice system, often soon after they are charged.

The concept is called "restorative justice" and it gives offenders a chance to face the community directly -- and especially their victims -- to accept responsibility for their actions and make amends.

...an added bonus is that restorative justice programs cost less than locking up a person in prison. The inconvenient truth in sentencing is that the public may be safer when non-violent offenders are kept out of prisons.

=End clips

Source St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial 1/23/09 http://tinyurl.com/bz94ex http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/23-3

==
The rest of the Post-Dispatch editorial is imho worth reading.

This kind of thinking can't be "new" in local discussion. And we have eg some "alternative court" processes...But we still have "three strikes," we still plan to build jails when there are other more humane, more sensible and less expensive ways to procede...

< Progressives save America's ass (again) | Washington Democratic Party Reorg 1/24/09 >

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