Thursday, April 05, 2007

News of the Day, Thursday, April 5, 2007

  • Something to be proud of. We say we want to protect our kids from the marauding sex offenders out there so we enact residency and work restrictions to make it hard for them to be around. So where do they go? Under city bridges. PO'ed and hopeless. Which should make them really happy campers satisfied with their lives and not needing any diversions, right?
  • Among the truly laggard state leaders in addressing the problems facing corrections sentencing have been the state chief justices as a group. A little talk, even less walk. Nice to see FL's take the lead on investigating the whys and wherefores of incarceration of the mentally ill, homeless, and drug addicted.
  • A change in NM law will keep prosecutors from going after folks helping drug users who have OD'ed, letting friends, family, and fellow users go for assistance, and from going after the ODers themselves.
  • Need a job? WA is apparently going to be needing 1900 new employees once its new 2000plus bed prison and its expansion of another get rolling. See why these things are such big draws for hard-pressed communities and why it's so hard to get rid of them once up and running?
  • One reason why the prisons will still be there even with the growth of alternatives? Well, things like not being able to rely on GPS tracking if solar flares get rowdy. Prisons give you a lot less trouble.
  • Calls for tighter restrictions on teens, including driving age and other things, and less reliance on education due to the research showing that their lunatic brains really don't get fully developed until 18 or later. Sounds harsh (and will draw much mature whining and stomping around), but it also fits the idea that they're not adults and shouldn't be treated as such for their offenses. So everybody should be PO'ed.
  • Finally, really weird stuff with bizarre TECHNOCORRECTIONS implications. "New Stanford-led research published in the April 5 issue of Nature describes a technique to directly control brain cell activity with light. It is a novel means for experimenting with neural circuits and could eventually lead to therapies for some disorders." And since many folks will see diverting deviant and criminal behavior if possible as "therapy," do I really need to spell out for you how this could affect corrections sentencing?

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