I could see the statute below as an immediate emergency response to those court orders; but the General Assembly has had 20 years or so to build more prison space and repeal this damned emergency measure. Instead we got the 1989 sentencing "reform" act that lets felons out way too soon.
You don't have to be a libertarian to think that protection of the citizenry against crime is second only to national defense at the national level and second to nothing at the state level. Prisons are a more primary function of state government than schools or Tenncare. Not to mention that "extra" earmark money doled out for legislators' pet projects this year. Shameful!
Here's the relevant part of the "safety valve" statute:
41-1-504. Governor's powers to reduce overcrowding. —
(a) Upon declaring that an overcrowding emergency exists, the governor shall invoke one (1) or both of the following powers to reduce overcrowding:
(1) Direct the board, in writing, to reduce the release eligibility dates of all male or female inmates, or both, excluding any inmate convicted by a court of escape, by a percentage sufficient to enable the board to consider immediately and to release on supervised parole enough inmates to reduce the in-house population of appropriate state correctional facilities to ninety percent (90%) of the relevant designated capacity. The department of correction shall be responsible for calculating the new release eligibility date of any felony offender sentenced to confinement for one (1) or more years in the department or a county jail or workhouse;
Contact your state legislator and demand that they face the music and provide funds for more prison space and longer sentences for the offenses that concern you most. If they turn you down, they're cowards, pure and simple, worried more about maybe having to raise taxes or cut less essential spending (which they fear might make them lose the next election) than protecting you from crime.
Are you sure you're not a prosecutor?
ReplyDeleteNaturally, as a retired cop, I would agree with the "get tough" strategy, but I don't think we should burden the taxpayers with this. I've been preaching for years that "fighting crime" is really applied Psychology. We are attempting to change behavior, not necessarily punish people. We should take no pride in putting a person in a cage for an extended period of time, but we should be proud if we can turn a thug into a productive, tax paying citizen, as apposed to them being a drain on society.
ReplyDeleteHere are some bullet points to consider:
1. Address the repeat offender problem. I think the solution is to focus on the repeat offenders first. If a person has been convicted of 10 misdemeanors, the next time they get arrested on any charge, it should scale to a class E felony.
(I call this the hot plate approach. How many times did you burn your hand on a hot stove before you determined that was not a good strategy? For our system to work, the punishment should not be the same no matter how many times a person commits the crime. We need progressive discipline.
For a look at the top-ten list check out my blog at Memphis Crime
2. Don't build new expensive facilities. Use property the county already owns and build training camps. If the military can survive in tents, so can the prisoners. We have no need to have state of the art (translated=high dollar) facilities for criminals.
3. Actually teach these people some skills while they are incarcerated.
4. Use the prisoners to grow the food they will eat. Seek out assistance from assistance organizations, including getting surplus from the military.
5. Work with the faith community to establish a system that counsels with the prisoner and their family.
6. Measure what is done so success rates can be determined. Continue to do the things that work and eschew those that don't.
7. Partner with the University of Memphis to put the system in place that measures success/failure.
8. Contact your Legislators