[Winona Online Democracy]
I'll take a stab at answering Dwayne's questions from the perspective of
having spent 10 years on the bench.
1. Jails are effective for some things. They are not a substitute for
prisons (long term sentences for serious offenders). They are effective as
a temporary holding facility for persons arrested and awaiting a court
appearance.
2. The simple solution of "lock em up and throw away the key" is a
simplistic answer to a multitude of complicated questions. For some
offenders, there is no good solution other than incarceration. These
persons are very few in number, however. The states which espouse the "lock
em up and throw away the key" philosophy do not have the lowest crime rate.
It is interesting that Wisconsin with the approximate same population as
Minnesota, imprisons about 3 or 4 times the numbers that Minnesota does.
The crime rate is higher in Wisconsin Minnesota spends more money on
probation officers and Wisconsin spends more on prisons. Both systems
require paid employees.
3. There are different types of crimes and different people who commit them.
It would take more than an entire book to describe all the variations.
There is no one size fits all alternative that works. I don't think that
any state tries to do a one size fits all type of punishment.
4. Alternatives to straight jail time are
a. suspended jail time that has to be served in whole or in part if the
offender violates probation
b. some jail time and the balance of the sentence suspended on
conditions.
5. So far, these alternatives are the Minnesota system. Our only problem is
underfunding of probation personnel which leaves us with inadequate
probation supervision. The public seems to prefer not to pay for prisons or
probation officers.
6. The legislature is always changing the sentencing laws as well as the
definitions of crimes (changing the degree of crime for certain conduct for
example). The legislature is subject to lobbying by pressure groups as well
as well documented data. The most recent results have been to set more
mandatory sentences, higher mandatory bail, mandatory surcharges for all
defendants, and to require the indigent defendants to repay the cost of
their defense.
7. We probably wouldn't need one if we heeded Judge Challeen's advice.
8. The vast majority of crimes are petty offences. The major ones are
seldom occurring in Southern Minnesota.
One size does not fit all. For some crimes, the only sensible punishment is
life without parole. We must be willing to pay for whichever system of
punishment we elect to use. Prisons cost money and have to be staffed.
Jails cost money and have to be staffed. Probation officers cost money and
need to be well trained and educated. All systems have some failures, but
the best solutions are those that seek to treat mental illness as an illness
not a crime, that try to be proportionate and balanced in sentencing, and
try to get the perpertrator to become law abiding.
Some of the disproportionate sentencing that gives high profile/powerful
people small sentences tends to discourage people from being law abiding.
When persons find it very difficult to conduct their lives successfully,
there is a tendency to bend the law a little to make things work. Entire
forests have been felled to provide the paper for all the books that have
been written about this subject, so I will stop here and leave it to all of
you to do your own research. Judge Challeen's books are not a bad place to
start.
4
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dwayne Voegeli" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 06:59
Subject: [Winona] Crime and Punishment
> [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:
>
> ----------
>
> 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?
>
>
> ----------
>
> Dwayne Voegeli
>
> January 3, 2004
>
> ----------
>
> Tuesday, December 30, 2003
>
> Winona Daily News
>
> Guest Editorial
>
> Title: Jail crowding due to bad DUI laws
>
> Dennis A. Challeen
>
> ----------
>
> 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.
>
> ------------
>
> Dwayne Voegeli
>
> Winona County Commissioner, District #2
>
> (507) 453-9012
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> 359 Pleasant Hill Dr.
> Winona, MN 55987
>
> ------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy
> All messages must be signed by the senders actual name.
> No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list.
> To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit
> http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona
> Any problems or suggestions can be directed to
> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact
page at
> http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
_______________________________________________
This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy
All messages must be signed by the senders actual name.
No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list.
To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit
http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona
Any problems or suggestions can be directed to
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at
http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
