Gov. Peter Shumlin kicked off a criminal justice reform conference at Vermont Law School Friday morning by calling current criminal justice practices a “miserable failure” in reducing opiate use and making communities safer.
Speaking to a crowd of lawyers, judges and law enforcement officials, the governor urged them to develop alternatives to arrest and incarceration that can be implemented across the state. Building new prison beds to handle an inmate population that has spiked in the past 20 years, Shumlin said, is not the answer.
‘If we don’t get it right soon it will change the quality of life in Vermont. We’ve got the smartest minds in the state here working on a problem that we are botching pretty bad,” Shumlin said. “We can’t build our way out of it. No way. I am open as a governor to taking risks, to change the parameters and assumptions we have always made so we can turn this around, not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.”
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“Building new prison beds to handle an inmate population that has spiked in the past 20 years, Shumlin said, is not the answer.”
Hey Pete, you do realize that the DOC gave you a report indicating that in
2002 Total intakes = 7779
2012 Total Intakes = 6496
Umm, to me that looks like a dip not a spike…..
You also clearly missed the graph showing the make up of the prison population on June 2012… out of the 2075 inmates that comprised the prison population 8 were there for a Misdemeanor Drug charge. That’s 0.3% of the prison population….
” Shumlin said. “We can’t build our way out of it.”
Nope your right… we can’t build 8 beds….
Of course it’s the Liberal way to make up problems… we can’t afford all these petty drug criminals clogging up the prison…
I guess if it really makes the libs happy just release the 8 in there and get it over with so we don’t have to hear this nonesense anymore.
For some interesting facts you can look here :
http://www.doc.state.vt.us/abo…
Meanwhile, violent and sexual offenders roam the streets around our neighborhoods, schools and parks.
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Not relevant.
Only not relevant if you choose to ignore the principle behind the message…
Why is Vermont behind Maine in legalizing Cannabis and behind New Hampshire in sentencing reform???
Wayyyy too much talk from ‘advocates’…wayyyy too much action from law enforcement…
Does Vermont have leadership in between the idiocrats?
If Vermont legalized Cannabis and reformed sentencing what would the libs use as talking points?
Remember a successful politician does not fix problems, they create them so they can justify why they should be re-elected.
Good point.
“Be nice to one another” is not the solution to our prison overcrowding problem. Try being a little more specific. Thanks.
The ironic thing about legalizing marijuana is how it will possibly convert , almost overnight, a bunch of backwoods hippies and anarchists into Republicans. What had been an anything goes enterprise for decades will suddenly be regulated, taxed, zoned and inspected for compliance.
Doubtful.
On the other hand if the Republicans came right out of the gate introducing a legalization bill it probably would. It would further force the Dems to agree with them (something I can’t see Shummy doing) or to oppose the bill costing them in the election. Perhaps the new GOP leader can come up with some intelligent strategies…
Fact is it is going to get legalized… may as well be the ones to take credit for it….
“Be nice to one another” is a good place to start from.
Here is the dilemma that is faced. The position of many is that anybody who has been incarcerated is bad, and a current position from others comments are that violent/sex offenders are the worst of the bunch. If we all learn to support and get along (see previous comment), and give the smallest bit of understanding, then making narrow minded comments could be reduced. It is pie in the sky thinking, but I think it is important to know more about people then to judge them based on one bad decision they made in their lives
So, you feel that personal freedoms, privacy and reductions in government spending are liberal ideals?
Interesting…
?? I’m not sure how you came to that conclusion based on my post….
“If Vermont legalized Cannabis and reformed sentencing what would the libs use as talking points?”
I interpret this, to mean that legalization and sentencing reform are lib(eral) ideals (talking points).
Or did you mean something else?
They are talking points…. I think you are just confused on what a talking point and idea are.
An idea would be a thought on how to fix something, it usually entails coming up with a plan and then following through with it.
A talking point is just that, a point to talk about. There is never actual details, never serious thoughts, plans and intent to implement the point being brought up, but it sounds good and keeps the sheep happy.
For another example see Bernie Sanders and the growing “wealth gap.” Bernies been in DC for 20 years and has never passed a single bill that addresses this so called gap in wealth with the rich getting richer. He rants and raves as it’s some ginormous issue and incites the people and then goes back to DC and collects another $3500 weekly paycheck.
Okay, I see. I just don’t quite understand why this would be a liberal (political value assigned) talking point (no political value assigned).
Your initial statement appeared to allude to legalization as being a liberal pursuit. Which doesn’t fit, in my view.
But, no matter.
???
It’s a liberal talking point because look at who it is doing all the talking about it? Shumlin, Dononvan, and Emmons…. all of those people carry a “D” with their names.
See any right wingers in the press proposing legalization of Mary Jane?
But if you were to see how many other offenses were committed a) to get money for drugs (including alcohol) or b) while under the influence, drugs/alcohol are likely the biggest single cause of relatively minor crime in the state.
And you apparently missed the graph in your own link that showed a continuing rise in the number of incarcerated because of prisoners serving more years and the high recidivism rate (up to 75% in some populations). So intakes might be down, but bodies in beds are up.
The biggest cause of relatively minor crime isn’t the concern here. Relatively minor crimes do not crowd prisons… they may clog the court system and overload P&P, but that’s not so much the point…
As for which graph I missed, I apologize but you are going to need to be more specific. I actually looked at most of the 227 pages worth of graphs. In general, the population has leveled off over the past 10 years, and has declined to an extent in most cases. If you have one particular graph that strikes your interest please indicate which one.
But you two numbers illustrate a point rather nicely, its not minor crimes (drug possession for example ) that are causing prison crowding rather the major crimes (those prisoners serving over a year) and recidivism rates … (basically, the criminal justice systems is not working, the penalties and potential penalties are not such to deter criminals.)
Drug test all people receiving Gov’t assistance and deny assistance to those that fail a second drug test. That would take care of most of the problems…