on jail, and more jails...

I hear both sides of the debate for and against spending $25 millions to build a new jail for Benton County. As I see it, our current “jail overcrowding” offers an opportunity to address the broader problems of our criminal justice system. Too often, ambitious sheriffs and prosecutors overwhelm our courts by misleading grand juries, and overuse the trick of plea bargaining to “score” against defendants who are too poor to afford adequate legal representation, condemning them to live with a criminal record without ever getting a fair trial. Current practices of sentencing have more to do with punishment than rehabilitation. Our prison industry is the most lucrative of all businesses. Even if this is a local measure, I have no reason to think that our Benton County justice system is different than the rest of the US.

We already spend more money per capita on prisoners than on students. How insane! The US, with less than 5% of the world’s population, has nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners – and yet Americans feel less safe than citizens in other industrialized countries. More jails won’t help.

I will support a measure that will raise money to prevent crimes, strengthen safety nets for our vulnerable residents, and revise our criminal justice practices. Imagine what $25 million can do for our county in social and educational services to reduce the need for jail beds! Passing Measure 2-91 is a missed opportunity to force radical changes in our current dysfunctional justice system.

(Published in the Gazette Times, Corvallis, OR, October 16, 2015)