Tag Archives: rehabilitation

One of the ways we save money is not build new prisons —Grover Norquist

On the Alyona Show, Grover Norquist: Prison Reform NOW:
A long prison sentence might be justified, but it also might be very expensive, and maybe it’s not the best way to deal with people with drug problems.

…

People do want to know that violent criminals are locked up for a good length of time. They’re not particularly interested in locking up in prison for $20,000 a year or in some places in California, $50,000 a year…. It’s not free to put someone in prison.

He even recommends trying rehabilitation and drug treatment.

Texas is the state that’s moved out there, done some very serious analysis.
Drug rehabilitiation, lower recidivism, lower costs.

In Lowndes County, Georgia, we have two hospitals, a drug treatment center, and many doctors and nurses. What if we invested in them instead of in a money-losing private prison?

-jsq

It’s an opportunity –John S. Quarterman

“Like a burned-over longleaf pine, we can come back from this recession greener than ever, if we choose wisely.”

Here is my response to James R. Wright’s questions about jobs and priorities. -jsq

It’s an opportunity for those of us who are not currently searching for our next meal to help those who need jobs, and thereby to help ourselves, so they don’t turn to crime. Like a burned-over longleaf pine, we can come back from this recession greener than ever, if we choose wisely.

Switchgrass seemed like a good idea five or ten years ago, but there is still no market for it.

Meanwhile, local and organic agriculture is booming, and continued to boom right through the recession.

Not just strictly organic by Georgia’s ridiculously restrictive standards for that, but also less pesticides for healthier foods, pioneered as nearby as Tifton. That’s two markets: one for farmers, stores, and farmers’ markets in growing and distributing healthy food, and one for local banks in financing farmers converting from their overlarge pesticide spraying machinery to plows and cultivators.

Similarly, biomass may have seemed like a good idea years ago, but with Adage backing out of both of its Florida biomass plants just across the state line, having never built any such plant ever, the biomass boom never happened.

Meanwhile, our own Wesley Langdale has demonstrated to the state that

Continue reading →

What do churches think of private prisons?

It’s Sunday, so let’s ask some churches what they think of private prisons.

Episcopal Church:

“The shipping of fathers and mothers to private prisons in far-flung states is guaranteeing a new generation of frightened, angry, disenfranchised children, who are future inmates,” she said, adding that “families who try to visit loved ones are treated as suspects in many prisons. The children cannot understand the lack of warmth and hospitality in the visiting rooms.”

The Episcopal Church’s General Convention is on record in opposition to private prisons.

Presbyterian Church: Continue reading →

Cost of Incarceration in Lowndes County

I don’t know what we pay in local or state taxes to lock people up in Lowndes County, Georgia, although probably it’s in line with the high cost of incarceration in Georgia. I do know there are a lot of indirect costs, including this one:
Prisoners have to be released from prison or the county jail into the same community, and can’t get a job because they’re ex-cons, and often not even an apartment. Result? Homeless ex-cons turning to crime.
Female ex-cons in Lowndes County have some places they can turn to for housing. Male ex-cons have only the Salvation Army, and they have to leave there every morning early. In Atlanta they’ve examined their situation and determined that housing is the most central issue.

Which would we rather do? Pay as much per year to send them back to jail as it would cost to send them to college? Or find a way to provide housing for them?

How about helping ex-prisoners learn job-hunting skills and job-holding skills? Employment is the best preventative for crime. There are local organizations ready to work on that, such as CHANCE: Changing Homes and Neighborhoods, Challenging Everyone.

Local tax dollars need to be spent in a way that benefits the entire community, and not just a few. Maybe we can afford to do something about getting ex-prisoners a place to live and jobs so they stay out of crime and improve the local economy. Actually, can we afford not to do that to reduce incarceration expenditures?

Biomass Air Quality Hearing Set

This appears to be the date and location for the Georgia EPD air quality hearing for the Wiregrass Biomass plant proposed for Valdosta:
6:30 PM, 27 April 2010
Multipurpose Room
Valdosta City Hall Annex
300 North Lee Street
Valdosta, Georgia
We’ve been waiting on this date for a while. EPD is going to send a press release to the VDT a few weeks in advance and post it on its own website, www.georgiaair.org. Assuming, of course, that the date and place don’t change again.

Why should you care? This plant proposes to burn sewage sludge, which can release numerous hazardous chemicals into the air. Here is Seth’s letter to the editor of the VDT of 21 Feb 2010: Continue reading →

CHANCE: Changing Homes and Neighborhoods, Challenging Everyone

Many people have talked about the recidivism problem, but here’s a group trying to do something about it. Helping people right out of jail to learn how to get a job, convincing employers to hire them, mentoring them longterm with life coaches, lawyers, and accountants, and with some helping them start their own businesses and employ others. Jimmy Boyd is the principal organizer, and Steve Johnson is the outreach coordinator. They have some more people already signed up in a core team, and are looking for additional people, not to mention grants.

CHANCE had an organizational meeting 7 Jan 2010 at Floyd Rose’s Serenity Church. Here’s a playlist.


Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE.

Help give some people a needed push? Take responsibility and help solve a problem what will reduce crime by increasing employment? Here’s a chance to do that.