tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post112618162187921998..comments2024-03-25T20:06:39.794-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: Restorative Justice in TexasGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-1126196305526093772005-09-08T11:18:00.000-05:002005-09-08T11:18:00.000-05:00I may write more on this over the weekend, but TPP...I may write more on this over the weekend, but TPPF's restorative justice angles on drugs amount to advocating for drug courts, expanded treatment options, etc., pointing out that the number of TDCJ residential treatment beds has actually declined in recent years. More TK. Thanks, Alan.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-1126193672133512212005-09-08T10:34:00.000-05:002005-09-08T10:34:00.000-05:00The quote you have given us from the report clearl...The quote you have given us from the report clearly signals a different spirit from the conservative attitude popular among both Democrats and Republicans in the 1990s. It was commonly believed that mass incarceration would make society safer simply by removing the bad people from the streets. This approach has clearly failed. But it is difficult to apply the principles of restorative justice to drug crime. Take your average drug dealer--to whom should they make restitution? Their willing customers? Their children? Their parents? The parents or children of their customers? The neighborhood in which they grew up? Drug dealing may not be a victimless crime in the sense that prostitution is, but the similarities outweigh the differences. Drug dealers often tell me they are simply following the logic of the market by supplying a demand. They see themselves as the rough equivalents of tobacco companies--their product may be destructive, but the customer wants it. Hummers may be gas-guzzling dispoilers of the environment, but people want to buy them. In what sense do products like marijuana and crack cocaine differ from Hummers and Marlboros? I'm not saying there is no difference; I'm saying that the difference has not been sufficiently examined. Conservatives love the market--until the conversation shifts to the subject of drugs. Or, more accurately, conservatives love legal markets (no matter how destructive) but despise black markets (no matter how inevitable).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com