Safer Community or Prison Expansion Program? The rest of the story.

While Lupe clearly outlined the problems with Proposition 6 in California, I am going to present a piece of local legislation for Colorado that we need to carefully examine as voters and I ask you to look at your own proposed legislation before voting this year.  I am sure that you will find similar pieces of legislation on your local ballots.  I ASK YOU TO READ YOUR BALLOTS AND FIND OUT THE ISSUE BEFORE VOTING IN YOUR STATE.

In Colorado, and specifically El Paso County, we are being confronted with a piece of legislation called 1 A labeled “for a Safer Community”.  While there are pieces of this county question that I personally would approve of, they are tied with other measures that I do not approve of.  The county question would address the ability of the county to protect portions of the population (specifically number 8):  Regional Child and Adult protection programs which shall be used to investigate prosecute, treat and prevent abuse and neglect of children and /or adults who are elderly and/or disabled in El Paso County.  However, the rest of the county question is directed to the building, expanding and strengthening of the office of the District Attorney, county corrections facilities, judicial offices and sheriff and police departments. 

This all sounds good in theory, because we want those facilities to be in good repair.  We would also like to see another work release facility in this county.  The problem comes when we tie those needs to the expansion of prison beds and the expansion of the prosecutors office.  If we are to enforce change in our current laws, causing law makers to re-examine the tough on crime policies that have caused the explosion in prison populations, we are going to have to send a clear message.  “NOT WITH OUR MONEY.”  We have to let them know, through our voting process, that we are tired of funding prison expansion programs and tough on crime policies.  We have to let them know that we are holding them to account to find real solutions to drug and alcohol offences, recidivism rates and juvenile crime policies that cause our young people to be incarcerated rather than reformed.  We have to let them know that we are no longer willing to fund a $734,000,000 Department of Corrections budget (Colorado proposed) without a clear plan on how to break the cycle of crime, educate and reform offenders and return them to a productive life that benefits our communities. 

In Colorado Springs, the county corrections community started a campaign for funding early in the year by enlisting local media to report on the potential danger that over crowding was causing in our county jail.  They interviewed guards, corrections officials and showed the current conditions while they labeled them a “time bomb”.  This put the issue of safety into the mind of voters.  

The real issue is the fact that we have very little in the way of community corrections, supervised sentences, house arrest or restorative justice practices in this community.  Our answer, as with most other municipalities, was put them in jail.  This has created a whole list of new problems.  Loss of job for the offender, economic hardship for the families, the effect of finding new jobs once released and the horrible conditions and treatment that has impacted the offender during his stay at the county facility.

I recently sat and talked with a 77 year old man that was given a jail term for violating a restraining order that was issued because he continually spoke out against the local school district.  While he was incarcerated he told me that he witnessed some of the worst conditions he had ever seen.  He related to me that one night at the change of shift (around midnight) the new sargent came on duty and announced over the loud speaker “  I am ____ and I am now in charge and I am not going to take any of your sh–!” 

We have continued to give them money without accountability, we have continued to give them the power to make laws without questioning their motives or the facts.  We have continued to fund things that we should not fund and neglect the things we should be attending to.  We are responsible.  In El Paso County we have a severe budget crisis as we do in the state of Colorado.  Could it be that we should have paid more attention?  Yes. 

This year……..think, ask, question and review…..BEFORE you vote.

This entry was posted on 15. October 2008 at 14:12 and is filed under Legal News, Prison Reform Advocates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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