[Winona Online Democracy]
Happy New Year Everyone,
Below is a copy of a guest editorial by retired District Judge Dennis
Chaleen that appeared in the Tuesday, December 30th edition of the Winona
Daily News.
I would be very interested to know what others thought of the points in
Judge Chaleen's letter. For instance:
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1. Do you believe jails are "effective?"
2. Can we simply afford to continue down this "lock em up and throw away
the key" path? Cal Thomas also had an interesting piece about a month ago
in the Daily News about this same thing.
3. Are there different kinds of crimes and criminals? Does a
one-size-fit-all punishment work?
4. Are there more effective alternatives to straight jail time?
5. Would the public be willing to accept these alternatives?
6. Would the State Legislature be willing to change it's sentencing laws?
7. Should Winona County build a new jail?
8. What are people's thoughts in general about crime and punishment?
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Dwayne Voegeli
January 3, 2004
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Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Winona Daily News
Guest Editorial
Title: Jail crowding due to bad DUI laws
Dennis A. Challeen
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In the late 1980s and early 1990s our state legislators were being
pressured to pass mandatory 30-day jail sentences for repeat drunk
drivers. They ordered a study. The state planning agency returned
research over a three-year period that found: "no difference in repeat
rates between those that were sent to jail and those that were not sent
to jail, nor was there any difference between those who served long jail
sentences or short jail sentences."
They also cautioned our legislators that if they passed this law,
county jail resources would be severely stressed. Ignoring this advice,
the law was passed anyway - apparently choosing politics over
rehabilitation.
Now more than a decade later, these prophesies have come true.
About half the inmates, according to the chief jailor are repeat
driving-under-the-influence offenders. Our county commissioners are now
being forced into making a jail building decision they shouldn't have to
make. Don't blame the judges either; there is little discretion in
mandatory sentencing laws.
To make matters even more clear, the National Institute of
Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice released research findings in
2000 that indicate some people appear to be "resistant to punishment."
They are:
Psychopathic risk takers.
Those under the influence of a chemical substance.
Those with a history of being punished.
So here we are about to build more jail cells to house more people
who are chemically dependent with a history of being punished. Research
warns us it hasn't worked and won't work.
So where did we go wrong? In my opinion, the problem began when we
criminalized a public health problem and believed we could punish our
way to highway safety. We scare the hell out of normal responsible
people who are low risk and not the problem. And unintentionally, we
created an alcoholic subculture of undeterred outlaws without a valid
driver's license, who drive uninsured, un-titled, unsafe automobiles and
pose a deadly highway hazard. Locking up and increasing the penalties on
these outlaws doesn't change them - it seems to make them more desperate
to outrun the cops. The result: overkill on the social drinker while
missing the boat on hard-core alcoholics. Reducing the blood-alcohol
content to 0.08 percent only increases this problem.
Our DUI laws are based upon interdiction (catch them before they
kill someone) and punish them so they won't do it again. But car crashes
are like bolts of lightning. We know a fatal accident will occur again
in this county, but we don't know where it will strike next, creating an
impossible task for law enforcement.
There is a paradox with punishment: It works the best on those who
pose the least threat to society (that's why most of us believe in it so
strongly), and it is least effective on those who pose the greatest
threat to society. Those who have experienced chemical dependency
in the family understand the difficulty of dealing with the disease.
Instead of building more jails and prisons, we should use the ones we have
more wisely. We need jails and prisons to contain the dangerous, but
nowhere in America is there any evidence that jails rehabilitate chemically
dependent offenders. We must use our existing commitment laws and spend our
tax dollars on successful treatment programs and use cognitive programs to
change the faulty belief systems of chronic offenders.
The Justice Department study showed cognitive programs decreased criminal
behavior by 29 percent, treatment by 15 percent; while punishment -
jails - increased criminal behavior slightly - by .07 percent.
We have trained cognitive facilitators in our community. The new
staggered sentencing concept of rewarding offenders who work towards
rehabilitation has shown promise with multiple DUI offenders. Drug
courts (alcohol is a drug) are appearing around the country where the
goal is rehabilitation; tight control; fail means jail; start over
again. Jail is used as a "jolt" not a cure.
So what should our commissioners who inherited this problem do? We
have to bring our outdated jail up to today's standards and provide
minimum security cells in the basement or elsewhere. Then they should
pass a resolution for our local legislators to take to the state Capitol
and undo failed mandatory laws and return DUI sentencing discretion to
the judges, who deal with it every day on a case-by-case basis and who
can control the local jail population.
Dennis A. Challeen is a retired Winona District Court judge. He has
written widely on crime, criminals and punishment.
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Dwayne Voegeli
Winona County Commissioner, District #2
(507) 453-9012
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
359 Pleasant Hill Dr.
Winona, MN 55987
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