Effective sentencing should be collaborative, involving a variety of relevant experts in assessment and sentencing decisions. Judges are lawyers, trained in criminal jurisprudence, charged with assuring due process. They are not trained in the complexities of human behavior.Kelly foresees a judicial system where, "The judge oversees a process that involves a team of experts engaging in problem-solving, setting expectations, compiling assessment information, developing and implementing an intervention and supervision management plan, and dealing with noncompliance and reoffending." That's all well and good, but it would take a lot more judges unless the plan also included a component that limits the justice system's volume, a subject unaddressed in this short article but which couldn't be ignored if his suggestions were put into play.
Judges should collaborate with experts from a variety of disciplines as appropriate — psychologists, addiction specialists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists and vocational, occupational and educational specialists — to develop a supervision and intervention plan.
The tagline to Kelly's column noted that his "most recent book, “Criminal Justice at the Crossroads: Transforming Crime and Punishment,” published by Columbia University Press in May, presents a road map for extensive reform of the American criminal justice system."
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10 comments:
Been saying that for years.
What a load of touchy feely BS! Some people are just criminals. No amount of loving and understanding will change that simple fact.
Many of the men at the state jail where I work were offered 2 year or 5 year probations etc. "why report every month for 5 long years when I can get it all over with in a six month sentence?" And so they do six months here a year there and many clients are repeat customers.
Next suggestion?
Queen Ra
Professors and actors living in their fantasy worlds.
I've been in court ordered therapy and its best described as a pile of crap. The therapists, like most government employees and contractors, are incompetents who can't find other work. If the patients get better and leave the program, the therapists loose money so they have a disincentive to do a good job. In the program I was in, the therapist and her colleagues were always trying to extend patient's time because they didn't respond to treatment. The judge and probation department never asked if the problem was with the program or the therapist but always blamed the patient.
To learn what court ordered therapy is like, read George Orwell's "1984" or the "Manchurian Candidate". Brainwashing is the correct way to describe the treatment.
How about some perspective from a long time judge? http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Losing-Criminal-Justice-Fails-ebook/dp/B007AUECIO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1442199476&sr=8-2&keywords=challeen
Winning at Losing
If a man commits a crime and doesn’t get caught, His foolish mind believes he’s winning…
But we know he’s winning at losing.
And if we catch him; we retaliate, punish and lock him away, We too, believe we are winning…
But if our need for revenge makes him more violent, And his foolish mind doesn’t change…
And he returns someday to victimize us…
our children, Are we, just like him, winning at losing?
Judge Dennis A. Challeen
or maybe http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gen-barry-mccaffrey/breaking-our-addiction-to_b_245401.html
Yep, a couple of touchy feely academics there.
Anon 10:52. Was this program located at Volunteers of America, Fort Worth or 1st Step Counseling in Addison? Both those programs are defrauding the tax payers as we speak. You can expect to get recycle through those programs several times. I have believed for sometime now, that not only is it a fraud but people are getting paid to keep them in those programs. Nothing can compare to the Salvation Army in Dallas program as far as fraud goes. County parole officers seem to have much to gain from this also.
Having worked both in social services and law enforcement, I am also skeptical sometimes about the value of therapy. However, I do think we need to look at trying different approaches to criminal justice. The lock them up for a while and hope they learn their lesson approach just doesn't work well. I think we do need to look at ways to change thinking and behavior patterns. Therapy may not be the best way but we need to start looking at creative alternatives. If locking them up was the best way to eliminate crime, we wouldn't still have a crime problem, would we? Yes, there are some dangerous folks that will always need to be locked up, but I think we can find better ways to deal with those that aren't dangerous.
Anon 8:44. Nope, mine is in the Houston area. My little research shows they all the same. Taxpayers aren't being defrauded, I am. I have to pay all the expenses myself.
I agree with you about being defrauded. I had a friend that paid nearly 100k to get and keep his family member in one of those parole programs ITPC Program I believe it is called. The Parole Board insisted one it. They are probably getting kickbacks from it. But taxpayers are on the hook also. I hope it gets better for you, my friend has lost almost his entire savings and everything he owns thanks to the rotten to the core Parole Board and this program.
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