Jail Dilemma A Real Crime
That loud crunching noise you heard coming from the Spokane County Courthouse the other day was the collision of two important directives the public has issued to its policy-setters and decision-makers.
1. Put the do-badders behind bars.
2. Don’t spend a lot on the bars.
So, even as county commissioners consider shifting some prisoners from the crowded Spokane County Jail to Geiger Corrections Center - where there is available space and where it is cheaper to house inmates - commissioners worry that such a move would aggravate rather than alleviate their problems.
Free up jail space, they fear, and judges will start sentencing first and asking questions later. Before you know it, the county will be worse off than before.
The dilemma brings to mind the state’s sentencing guidelines act which provided for a regular adjustment in sentencing ranges depending on whether there were enough cells to meet the demand.
The upshot is that society has decided the appropriate punishment depends on not just the nature of the crime and the criminal but also on the availability of jails.
Is that as it should be? Does armed robbery, for instance, deserve a lesser sentence when the cells already are full of other armed robbers? Or does insisting on stern punishment obligate taxpayers to pay more for additional cells?
What happened to the team players? Or the team?
A poll taken by Brown University in Providence, R.I., found that 68 percent of the respondents believe American companies are less loyal to workers than they were a decade ago. Sixty percent feel employees are less loyal to companies.
OK, you say you didn’t need a pollster to tell you that.
But what’s behind the demise of mutual allegiance in the workplace? And what would restore it?
‘Home Improvement’ it ain’t
President Clinton wants to force the nation’s broadcast media to give political candidates free air time. This, he believes, would loosen the choke hold that special-interest bankrolls have on the election process.
(And he ought to know, right?)
Imagine, channel after channel, night after night, hour after hour - political candidates speaking at unfettered length.
Show of hands, please. Who’d watch? Who watched the presidential debates? The State of the Union message? C-SPAN?
Do we still have a quorum?
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