by Phillip Torsrud
Attorney General Eric Holder claims Americans are still in many respects cowards, when it comes to race relations. Is Eric Holder so brave? Has he commenced an investigation into the lies used to promote a war of aggression against Iraq? An unjustified war is the greatest of war crimes. While Holder is correct that many Americans have attitude problems, as Attorney General he could address something far more significant than an attitude, criminal actions. He could also prosecute specific people, instead of lecturing a generic category of people, Americans.
Does Holder fear the possibility that a full investigation might vindicate George Bush's decision to go to war? Perhaps he's concerned that some high ranking democrats would share culpability in the rush to invade Iraq under false pretenses. Thousands are dead, tens of thousands have been wounded, and billions of dollars have been spent. History demands a verdict, and Bush's departure from office creates the first real opportunity for a thorough investigation.
Rather than hide behind a general accusation of cowardice, I will charge Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle with the crime of lacking a spine. In early 2008, I wrote to Governor Jim Doyle and sent him my book, Essays of a Penitentiary Philosopher, which I also sent to a number of other politicians. The book calls for the reform and depoliticization of our legal system. On p. 16, I explained that, "The economics of this will be a weight that eventually pushes many states to adopt reforms. The fact that some states will fall into a fiscal crisis before these reforms are made, shows just how little foresight politicians have." Then on p. 120, "The longer we procrastinate the more dire the consequences." And, "While it looks better for politicians to claim they were forced to release prisoners, leaders should deal with this problem while it is still manageable."
As a result of the budget crisis, Doyle now wants to use a two-thirds formula, similar to what used to exist for all Wisconsin prisoners, for non-violent offenders. Before Truth In Sentencing, TIS, that formula meant that if you behaved, you could earn one day of good time for every two days you stayed out of trouble. Therefore the most you would do is two-thirds of your sentence, if you behaved.
It was humorous to hear the Governor and the Secretary of Corrections explain that prison guards liked it because it gave inmates an incentive to behave. What a profound insight! It took almost a decade to realize that if you reward good behavior, that would be an incentive for prisoners to behave? Wasn't human motivation the crucial element communism lacked, and therefore doomed it to failure? Despite knowing what works, we have a policy that we know will fail, TIS.
Governor Doyle was a big proponent of TIS, which is very costly for the people of Wisconsin. Now he admits that some people really don't need to do their entire sentence. Really? It took the collapse of our economy to make him realize this? Taxpayers have been spending millions to keep people locked up, while tuition at U.W. campuses was exploding every year. Families have been struggling and suffering as their loved ones remained locked up, simply to satisfy the whim of a bunch of politicians, judges and prosecutors who wanted to look tough?
Sheriff Clark of Milwaukee, and some other law enforcement officials, were critical of Doyle's plan to release these prisoners. Their argument was that public safety should not take a back-seat to budgetary issues. They are correct that Doyle's failure to address the need for prison reform has created a tremendous risk to public safety. Had Doyle not been so politically minded, he could have opened up the dialogue on prison reforms long ago. In the midst of a failing economy, where the temptation to revert back to criminal activities has substantially increased due to the difficult job market, Doyle wants to dump thousands of unprepared prisoners onto the streets.
What's coming is even worse than I expected when I wrote the Essays. Economic collapse was inevitable, but not of this magnitude. What's clear, and what politicians won't prepare you for, is that in the summer of 2009, millions of Americans will run out of their unemployment checks. At the same time, we will have the usual higher summer gas prices, which also raises the price of everything else. This is one reason many citizens have taken the initiative to buy their own guns. The conditions are ripe for a crime explosion. What efforts are our politicians making for this threat to personal security? They're going to release a bunch of angry and frustrated prisoners, who should have been released years ago, to make room for new ones.
Our states are like ships that nobody wants to steer, because then there's accountability if something goes wrong. So, we're just drifting to wherever the current takes us. As every sailor knows, that's how you run aground. Now, everyone is calling the Federal Government to send tugboats, but there aren't going to be enough. While George W. Bush was the Incompetent in Chief, he can't be blamed for everything. There was plenty of incompetence at the state level. Very few states in America have had the benefit of leadership over the last twenty years. Obama would be wise to shake some of these incompetents from his coattails.
If solutions to our crime problem, like TIS, only work when the economy is doing well, we're in big trouble. It's going to be years before our economy gets straightened out, and Governors nation wide need to be honest about the failure of the whole tough on crime crusade of the mouth. It's not too late for prison reforms, but unlike Doyle's proposal, an honest acknowledgment of failure must be made.
To read my books and my blogs on crime and other issues, go to www.crimeandculture.com.
