Quick Hits

• Really heartfelt and correct reminder of the important role of education in preventing recidivism over at, where else, Prevention Works.
• New report out of IL on the impact of the last couple of decades on prison populations because of the War on (Some) Drugs. First quote to memorize: The result has been a prison system swamped with drug offenders, without much change in the rate of drug abuse, said Kathleen Kane-Willis, the report's primary author."You see a continual reaction by the General Assembly to penalize drug use, but I don't think they thought through what the result might be," she said. Second one, what will be written by historians trying to explain why the US corroded itself intentionally when it’s a second class nation like other former great powers: State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) called such measures "a hodgepodge mess of feel-good statutes and press release material" but acknowledged that he votes for them, too. No politician, he said, can afford to be branded soft on crime.
• We prod and poke the states that can't get their acts together on the fiscal disasters facing their budgets because of the above quote, but we need to applaud a state when it seems to be screwing its head back on straight. Like NV.
• Okay, back to poking. A CA appeals court has ruled it's okay for the state to go back to sending inmates out of state, further spreading that state's illness throughout the nation. Of course, some legislators there actually think it's a solution instead of fuel on the fire, but they'll likely be out of office by the time the hooey hits so no big deal.
• Finally, some exceptionally good news, at least to us corrections types if not to the sentencing ones. Researchers may have found a cure for Hepatitis C. However big you think they would be, it's bigger, I promise you.