Pubdate: Mon, 13 Dec 2004
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2004 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Ray Larson

SOME OFFENDERS DESERVE TO BE IMPRISONED

They Often Prey On The Poor WHO Have Right To Protection

I hope the critics of incarcerating violent and repeat offenders aren't 
suggesting that it is too expensive to try to protect everyone's safety. 
Residents of neighborhoods which are plagued by high crime rates are just 
as entitled to protection from crime as anyone else.

As it is, far too much crime is committed by these violent and repeat 
offenders in less affluent neighborhoods.

Furthermore, studies both in America and abroad have confirmed that a small 
percentage of criminal offenders are responsible for committing a large 
percentage of the crimes.

James Q. Wilson, a nationally recognized criminologist and professor of 
management and public policy at the University of California at Los 
Angeles, has written that about 6 percent of the criminal population will 
commit half or more of the crime in our country.

And that's not all. Over 90 percent of prison inmates are violent or repeat 
offenders, according to John J. Dilulio, Jr., of Harvard's Kennedy School 
of Government, and professor of political science and public affairs at 
Princeton University.

In his article published in the Washington Post, "The Numbers Don't Lie: 
It's the Hard Core Doing Hard Time," Dilulio reported that the U.S. Bureau 
of Justice Statistics showed conclusively that "fully 94 percent of state 
prisoners had either committed one or more violent crimes (62 percent) or 
been convicted more than once in the past for nonviolent crimes (32 percent).

"Comparable national data stretching back to the 1970's make plain that 
over 90 percent of the prisoners are violent or repeat offenders . The 
state-by-state data tell the same tale. For example, in 1990, Harvard 
economist Anne Morrison Piehl and I studied a large sample of the Wisconsin 
prison population. We found that in the year before they were imprisoned 
these prisoners committed a median of 12 crimes, excluding all drug crimes."

Obviously, when these violent and prolific criminals are on the streets 
they are preying on our citizens. When they are in prison or jail they are 
not committing crimes.

Common sense dictates that incarceration of these violent and repeat 
offenders would reduce the amount of crime on our streets, and allow us to 
work toward our goal of improving public safety and security.

Moreover, it makes great sense to target scarce law enforcement and 
prosecution resources on these high-rate offenders -- those offenders who 
not only commit a large number of crimes, but serious and violent crimes as 
well.

The safety and security of our citizens is the primary purpose of our 
government, be it federal, state or local. Police and prosecutors are part 
of government and serve as the front line in trying to reach our goal. We 
have discovered that focusing on the prosecution, conviction and 
incarceration of criminals who choose to commit crime after crime after 
crime is a smart strategy. We have done it, and the falling crime rate is 
evidence that it works.

Efforts to ensure the incarceration of these violent and repeat offenders 
have been the subject of intense criticism by those who seem to oppose 
enforcement of our Persistent Felony Offender laws.

They cite the cost of incarceration. Perhaps those critics are fortunate 
enough or wealthy enough to live in neighborhoods where gunfire, corner 
drug dealers and fear are not daily and nightly occurrences.

That one-sided analysis ignores the reality of the lives of many of our 
citizens and the criminal records of repeat offenders. Too many of our 
citizens are afraid for their own personal safety and that of their 
families. Unfortunately, they will be the ones victimized and forced to pay 
the high personal price, if these career criminals are allowed to remain on 
the streets of our community to prey on new victims.

To ignore the personal and property costs of additional crime to our 
law-abiding citizens and consider only the price of prison beds needed to 
protect the public by incarcerating these hardened violent and repeat 
offenders, is to place the welfare of the criminals above the safety and 
security of ALL of our citizens.

Unfortunately, many of our citizens do not have the luxury of a thoughtful 
analysis of crime and punishment. They are too busy just trying to survive 
in dangerous neighborhoods. They pay taxes.

Their opinions should count too. They simply want our government to protect 
them from these predators.
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MAP posted-by: Beth