European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 15, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes. Tuesday january 15,1991 ss5w Tom Wicke incarcerating Petty Crooks is no Chicken feed Civ pm Ckel ont fun <5>icy� la of tint Vlf Floc with the Federal government and most of the states caught in a budget squeeze a new York state May have a $4 billion deficit in the next fiscal year new Jersey faces an $800 million shortfall and Virginia a governor Doug Wilder is proposing $1.9 billion in spending cuts a question being asked by the National Council on crime and delinquency is right to the Point a Why does our nation spend such an exorbitant amount of Money each year to warehouse Petty criminals a we re not talking Chicken feed Here. The Cost of imprisoning or jailing what is now More than a million americans has reached $16 billion a year As reported in a study by the sentencing project. A separate Survey by the crime and delinquency Council found however that 80 percent of those going to prison Are not serious or violent criminals but Are guilty of Low level offences minor parole violations property drug and Public disorder crimes. A a warehousing these Petty criminals in the nations expanding prison system the Council estimates Cost taxpayers nearly $7 billion in 1986. The figure would be higher today be cause of a higher rate of incarceration and it la go higher still if that rate Contin us As Al signs suggest it will. These costs might be acceptable if crime rates were going Down commensurately but they re not. The number of americans behind bars has doubled since 1980 but the incidence of crime has fallen by Only 3.5 percent. Council figures show that crimes of violence have not decreased at All. Even so the High Cost of imprisonment might be justified if All those imprisoned were vicious killers and rapists but Only one out of five has been convicted on a serious charge and some of those crimes did not involve violence. Its not True either that we have so Many inmates because we have so much crime. The sentencing project notes that crime rates climbed by 14 percent from 1984 to 1989, but the number of prisoners Rose by 52 percent in the same period. What a actually happened is that the nations serious crime problem has caused a frightened Public and political Over reaction a lock up More people for longer periods a that a costing taxpayers dearly while doing Little if anything to. Provide a safer Young lets keep driving around asking for director 5om0om got to know the name of m town. New York state for example now imprisons about 55,000 people More than a fourfold increase Over the 12,500 in custody in 1973 a but there has been nothing like a fourfold decrease in crime if any at All. The High Cost of building cells and a a warehousing All those people a most of them probably non violent Petty criminals As in the National Survey a would have been More productively directed toward proven or promising programs of Community corrections work release restitution to victims Community service intensive supervision and the like. All Cost far less than prison construction and operation. Here Are some other things that could be done to reduce the costs of imprisonment without endangering Public safety a Amend or repeal the mandatory sentencing Laws that in 46 states Force the costly often self defeating incarceration of thousands of non violent Low level offenders. A shift the emphasis of the so called a War on drugs from Law enforcement which is losing to treatment and Public health which might do some Good and would at least keep a lot of a offenders a who Are. Really victims out of our prisons. A shorten individual prison sentences by three to six months Early release statistics show that this would rarely endanger Public safety while drastically reducing our prison population a now greater even per capita than those of the soviet Union and South Africa a and its immense costs to taxpayers. A for those necessarily imprisoned provide improved educational and vocational services and drug treatment where please keep recession be required to reduce what is now the overwhelming likelihood that those released will quickly be re incarcerated. A redirect police efforts to a Community policing a in an Effort to address problems before they become crimes and to respond More quickly and effectively when crimes Are committed. Most serious students of crime believe that these Steps would Matte our streets safer at far less Cost than the present strategy of Quot lock Mem up and throw away the but Only Community policing has much political support and most serious students of politics will Tell you not to hold your breath until Panicky Public fears and punitive Public attitudes Cool enough to permit such sensible anti crime policies. The new York times a persian Gulf crisis not Worth waging a War in the desert the shift of the Sands is imperceptible from Eye level. Only at ankle level can one see How grains of Sand leapfrog one another and dunes form. As the Sands of the hourglass dwindle toward Hal past january one wonders if George Bush a strategic Perch gives him any real sense of his country a unease about going to War. Bush May not see the desert for the dunes. He May confuse support for operation desert shield with License for apocalypse. In that Case he would be very wrong. To hear him times is to wonder which Hatter is most mad in that desert showdown. Bush says his Mission is to Stop aggression by Saddam Hussein Well of. Mission accomplished. Saddam a aggression has stopped. A the Shi Ekdom of Kuwait has been overrun yes and it is not an act to be taken lightly. But that act alone is not grounds for heading off to War against the w orld s larg Cost mobilized army. Quot Quot. In his interview with David Frost Bush referred to the support of czechoslovakian president Vaclav Havel. Bush implied that had America and allies shown similar resolve in Europe the soviets would not have subjugated the czechs. Maybe that a True but one could not find a jury of 12 now or then to have supported an All out invasion to drive the soviets out of Czechoslovakia. Why because it would launch a world War that a Why. A Quot. A ,. V a a. Quot \ striking iraqis army would not launch a world War a just an immensely bloody regional War. That is not sufficient rationale in comparison. Bush has a nutty gleam in his Eye when he talks of a a new world order should the insect Saddam be squashed. Humbling Iraq is made to sound like an inter fraternity rite that will make the soviets the chinese the europeans the syrians a All gods children a into blood pledges. It Quot new world order Quot sounds suspiciously like a War to end All behold the shifting Sands. Bush vows a no guarantees this incursion would not be another Vietnam. America would fight this Battle to win. But with those words Bush does no to see How the Sand moves at Ankles height. Sure if there is to be Battle strike fiercely end it quickly. For Many people however Quot another Vietnam Quot has nothing to do with getting in a and getting out. It has to do with memories of a War in w hich americans weren to sure Why they were involved except that it was a my country right or a War that is a no Vietnam is a military objective understood and supported by the people not just by the strategist in the crowds nest. A Young infantryman serving in desert shield recen by wrote Home asking for a Book about the stars an constellations to give him and his mates a better Handl on w Here they were. Quot i read a letter from his Mother Bianca Armitstead who said that her songs company had lost seven tank and had to go out and find them. There s not a Hill or Hummock or anything on the desert Tor the Guys in the tank in All their computerize systems to get a fix on a she wrote. So Here Are our men a wrote the Mother a lost in the Sand lost in the stars. They need our every to Slop Saddam from further advancing is sure a reason to have an International Force in the Middle fast. To wage War is not the reason however. It Bush checks out the Sand below him he will Rosaliz 1, .l.1 though the stars remain constant the Sand in shifted under desert shield. A a Cox. News service a
