Is this your concern? What is being done with your KY taxes?
If so, Who will sign this letter?
Herald Leader Editor:
In our Commonwealth of Kentucky, our jails and prisons are overcrowded, our judiciary and our parole system is overwhelmed and our budget is broken by a sentencing code that creates three times the national average and almost four times that of the seven surrounding states in new growth of our prison population. Is there something wrong here?
Please consider an investigative reporting series that addresses all aspects of this problem. There are many aspects to be investigated. Five times as many Blacks as Whites, warehousing creates Third World living conditions in some county jails, but the income from warehousing is the largest source of income in some counties, the ultimate resulting devastation to the Black family, the lack of rehabilitation available when almost 90% of the crimes are drug related, the revolving door aspect that two out of three are back in jail within three years.
Is this corrective justice or a stealth reverse apartheid? Does this tough sentencing code really reduce our crime rate and make our communities safer? At our present rate of growth in prison population we will soon need to build one new prison per year to house the inward flow, new and repeat, of those we are keeping in jail. We now have the highest rate of those in prison of any country in the world except Russia. Is this system working, or about to collapse?
How can we create a more effective transition system to help the released inmate secure job and housing and emotional support? How can we help secure jobs for those with felony convictions? What is missing that so many return to jail within three years? Why do we have so much addiction in Kentucky? Is it that much more than surrounding states? What does incarceration without treatment do to the addictive repeat offender? Why do we have five times as many Blacks as Whites in prison? Why is our nation have the highest per capita prison population in the Western world?
Please consider an investigative reporting series that addresses these issues and, hopefully, one which addresses all the players and all the components. For example, are counties making money on their jail populations and, if so, is that why they want no part of volunteer programs that are offered them repeatedly? Do they want their overcrowded conditions kept secret so they can keep the monies coming in? Questions, not facts, but relevant questions, if we care about how our tax monies are being used?
Signed:
name (print) Organization
Herald Leader Editor:
In our Commonwealth of Kentucky, our jails and prisons are overcrowded, our judiciary and our parole system is overwhelmed and our budget is broken by a sentencing code that creates three times the national average and almost four times that of the seven surrounding states in new growth of our prison population. Is there something wrong here?
Please consider an investigative reporting series that addresses all aspects of this problem. There are many aspects to be investigated. Five times as many Blacks as Whites, warehousing creates Third World living conditions in some county jails, but the income from warehousing is the largest source of income in some counties, the ultimate resulting devastation to the Black family, the lack of rehabilitation available when almost 90% of the crimes are drug related, the revolving door aspect that two out of three are back in jail within three years.
Is this corrective justice or a stealth reverse apartheid? Does this tough sentencing code really reduce our crime rate and make our communities safer? At our present rate of growth in prison population we will soon need to build one new prison per year to house the inward flow, new and repeat, of those we are keeping in jail. We now have the highest rate of those in prison of any country in the world except Russia. Is this system working, or about to collapse?
How can we create a more effective transition system to help the released inmate secure job and housing and emotional support? How can we help secure jobs for those with felony convictions? What is missing that so many return to jail within three years? Why do we have so much addiction in Kentucky? Is it that much more than surrounding states? What does incarceration without treatment do to the addictive repeat offender? Why do we have five times as many Blacks as Whites in prison? Why is our nation have the highest per capita prison population in the Western world?
Please consider an investigative reporting series that addresses these issues and, hopefully, one which addresses all the players and all the components. For example, are counties making money on their jail populations and, if so, is that why they want no part of volunteer programs that are offered them repeatedly? Do they want their overcrowded conditions kept secret so they can keep the monies coming in? Questions, not facts, but relevant questions, if we care about how our tax monies are being used?
Signed:
name (print) Organization
posted by Paschal Baute at 6:34 AM
|
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home