{"id":1945,"date":"2011-06-05T08:48:55","date_gmt":"2011-06-05T12:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/find-better-way-to-fight-crime-rev-chuck-arnold.html"},"modified":"2011-06-05T08:48:55","modified_gmt":"2011-06-05T12:48:55","slug":"find-better-way-to-fight-crime-rev-chuck-arnold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/find-better-way-to-fight-crime-rev-chuck-arnold.html","title":{"rendered":"Find better way to fight crime —Rev. Chuck Arnold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another Sunday, another preacher against private prisons.
\nUnlike some<\/a>,
\nthis one is not famous; Rev. Chuck Arnold is
\npastor of Valley of the Flowers United Church of Christ in Vandenberg Village, CA.
\nHe wrote in
\n
\nthe Lompoc Record 20 May 2011<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nGoing to a RAND Corporation study, in 1994 higher education received
\n12 percent of the state budget, corrections 9 percent, other services 9
\npercent (which included controlling environmental pollution, management
\nof parks, fighting of brush fires, regulating insurance and other
\nindustries). By 2002 higher education took the biggest hit, along with
\n\u201c other services,\u201d both of which were virtually eliminated from the
\nstate budget. Corrections on the other hand went from 9 percent to 18
\npercent of the budget.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which means that California, like so many other states, including Georgia,
\nspends more on prisons than on education.<\/p>\n

\nAnd not just public prisons anymore:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe United States now has a $3 billion-a-year industry in private
\nprisons. There are several studies showing no savings of the taxpayer
\ndollar to the states by privatization.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How did this happen?
\nPartly like this:<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nThe American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a Washington
\nDC-based public policy organization, develops model legislation that
\nadvanced tough-on-crime legislation and free-market principles such
\nas privatization of prisons. ALEC receives funding from the corrective
\nCorporation of America and G.E.O., the two largest private prison systems
\nin the United States. ALEC also receives funding from the billionaire
\nKoch brothers. So, unfortunately, maybe Dr. Barnes was wrong, there
\nmay be new horizons in penology \u2014 an industry that needs crime, and
\ncriminals to sustain its business model.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Remember, Georgia was just the first of many states
\nALEC lobbied with anti-immigration bills
\n
\nto be stupid enough to follow AZ in passing it.<\/a><\/p>\n

\nRegarding new horizons, Rev. Arnold is referring to<\/p>\n

\nH. E. Barnes, co-author with N. K. Teeter, of
\n
\n“New Horizons in Criminology,”<\/a> first published in 1943.
\nThe book had become the premier
\nwork in the field. Asked what the new horizons were, his response was,
\n\u201cThere are no new horizons in penology.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nRev. Arnold recommends a different new horizon:<\/p>\n

\nThe new horizons that are needed are new ways of treating social ills,
\nsuch as the “drug court” model highlighted in the Tuesday, May 17,
\nheadline in the Lompoc Record. “For the past 11 years Judge Rogelio
\nFlores, the senior judge in the county, has overseen the North County
\nversion of Drug Court, also known as the Substance Abuse Treatment Court,
\nalong with specialized courts for mental health and Proposition 36,
\nanother Judicial drug diversion program.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even Georgia is experimenting with
\nsentence reform and drug courts.<\/a><\/p>\n

\nRev. Arnold continued:<\/p>\n

\nWe as a society must continue to educate ourselves about and support
\nprograms to break the circle of insanity based on fear, punishment,
\nand revenge. With the recidivism rate between 70 percent to 80 percent,
\nit is obvious that what we have going now is not working.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And it’s designed not to work, because rehabilitation would decrease
\ncustomers for private prisons.<\/p>\n

\nLet’s not contribute to the insanity by letting CCA build a private prison
\nin Lowndes County, Georgia.
\nSpend that tax money on education instead.<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another Sunday, another preacher against private prisons. Unlike some, this one is not famous; Rev. Chuck Arnold is pastor of Valley of the Flowers United Church of Christ in Vandenberg Village, CA. He wrote in the Lompoc Record 20 May 2011 Going to a RAND Corporation study, in 1994 higher education received 12 percent of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,140,1113,14,15,1381,72,21,22,1908,178],"tags":[8744,8817,8705,8701,8830,8730,727,7,2490,75,2489,2712,8749],"class_list":["post-1945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-alec","category-cca","category-economy","category-education","category-immigration","category-incarceration","category-planning","category-politics","category-religion","category-vlcia","tag-alec","tag-cca","tag-education","tag-georgia","tag-immigration","tag-incarceration","tag-jail","tag-lowndes-county","tag-parole","tag-prison","tag-probation","tag-rehabilitation","tag-vlcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}