Monday, November 12, 2007

Fill In the Blank

From an official from a major research institute: "_______ has a history and a habit of ignoring many of the big issues that hint at policy or policy analysis."

Guess "My state's sentencing commission"? "My state's legislature"? "The public in general"?

Nope. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But you thought at least one of the others, didn't you?

Just wanted to show that we in corrections sentencing aren't the only ones stuck with machinery too slow and timid to address real and obvious problems in a timely way. Plus, this gives me another chance to link to a story on climate change that indicates that the famous IPCC report that we're trying our best to deny and obstruct is in fact already feared by those who know what they're talking about (a very small number of folks) to be too out-of-date and conservative as it's finally being finalized. As I've said before, that means we have a few years at best to get our acts together on climate policy, water policy, energy policy, and every social policy that will be affected by time and resources deflected to the first three when they get too big to ignore, even by the Cliff Clavens on talk radio. Including corrections sentencing. Which will need less costly but just as painful sounding remedies quick. Which will lead to TECHNOCORRECTIONS or over-promised private sanctions sold on ideology rather than demonstrated evidence. The alternatives we always sell as the alternatives will very likely still cost too much, especially the ones recognizing and taking chances on relapses. Of course, so will the TECHNO or the private stuff once we become too reliant on it to back away. All in all, it would be better just to use sense in the time we have left. In the words of the famous philosopher Judy Tenuda, "It could happen."

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