"That's the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang"-Sam Cooke
I read recently about a Florida Sheriff who has re-introduced chain gangs as part of punishing bad people. Of course, some civil rights "activists" are having a tizzy about this being a mean thing to do.
It reminded me when I worked at KTVK-TV in Phoenix covering Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. Back in the 90's he was watching news coverage of our troops deployed in the Balkans. It was December, snowing and cold. Our troops were housed in tents.
A lightbulb went off for Sheriff Joe. At the time there was a big debate about how to fund millions of dollars for a new jail for the county. Sheriff Joe figured if tents were good enough for our troops, they sure as heck would work for prisoners. So he went to surplus stores, bought a bunch of tents, surrounded it all with barbed wire and guard towers and even found a "Vacancy" sign at an auction.
He saved the good people of Maricopa County tens of millions of dollars. Heck, the Sheriff even got his food costs per prisoner down to about a buck a day. He also has an approval rating of about 85% of law abiding citizens. You know, voters. People who pay the bills and ask to be protected in return.
Arpaio's logic is sound. Don't break the law and you won't have to live in a tent jail. Don't break the law and you won't have to work on a chain gang. Arpaio says he's in the punishment business, not the rehabilitation business. He says if you don't rob, steal, pimp, sell drugs or shoot people, you won't have to deal with him.
Don't break the law. Fascinating in its simplicity and logic. But people do.
We need more chain gangs. We don't need palaces as jails. We need ugly places. People need to see that if you break the law, a bad thing happens to you. It's called punishment. It's a concept lost more and more in today's "Justice" system. Denver Police report gang related crimes have doubled in the last year. That's because we keep on letting them out of jail instead of keeping them in jail and punishing them. Maybe spending a few weeks/months/years outside in good weather and bad, shackled at the ankles cleaning ditches, filling pot holes and the like just might get some gang banger's attention there's a price to be paid when you do bad.
Here in Colorado child killers get more breaks than the children they kill. Shoot up a theater full of people in full view of hundreds of witnesses? You get the best legal counsel our tax dollars can buy. Paperwork snafus let criminals out of jail early on parole and those in charge don't notice when they slip out of their ankle monitor and go kill people.
Judges aid and abet the system by not allowing cameras in courtrooms. They do their best to hide what's going on in our courts because it's so shameful.
Our "Justice" system clearly favors the bad people. Not the law abiding citizens who are the victims of these vicious animals.
Yep, ugly jails, chain gangs and no parole. But only if you break the law. Behave yourself and none of it has to happen. This has nothing to do with race or gender. It has everything to do about law, order and what we used to call justice.
Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"
I read recently about a Florida Sheriff who has re-introduced chain gangs as part of punishing bad people. Of course, some civil rights "activists" are having a tizzy about this being a mean thing to do.
It reminded me when I worked at KTVK-TV in Phoenix covering Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. Back in the 90's he was watching news coverage of our troops deployed in the Balkans. It was December, snowing and cold. Our troops were housed in tents.
A lightbulb went off for Sheriff Joe. At the time there was a big debate about how to fund millions of dollars for a new jail for the county. Sheriff Joe figured if tents were good enough for our troops, they sure as heck would work for prisoners. So he went to surplus stores, bought a bunch of tents, surrounded it all with barbed wire and guard towers and even found a "Vacancy" sign at an auction.
He saved the good people of Maricopa County tens of millions of dollars. Heck, the Sheriff even got his food costs per prisoner down to about a buck a day. He also has an approval rating of about 85% of law abiding citizens. You know, voters. People who pay the bills and ask to be protected in return.
Arpaio's logic is sound. Don't break the law and you won't have to live in a tent jail. Don't break the law and you won't have to work on a chain gang. Arpaio says he's in the punishment business, not the rehabilitation business. He says if you don't rob, steal, pimp, sell drugs or shoot people, you won't have to deal with him.
Don't break the law. Fascinating in its simplicity and logic. But people do.
We need more chain gangs. We don't need palaces as jails. We need ugly places. People need to see that if you break the law, a bad thing happens to you. It's called punishment. It's a concept lost more and more in today's "Justice" system. Denver Police report gang related crimes have doubled in the last year. That's because we keep on letting them out of jail instead of keeping them in jail and punishing them. Maybe spending a few weeks/months/years outside in good weather and bad, shackled at the ankles cleaning ditches, filling pot holes and the like just might get some gang banger's attention there's a price to be paid when you do bad.
Here in Colorado child killers get more breaks than the children they kill. Shoot up a theater full of people in full view of hundreds of witnesses? You get the best legal counsel our tax dollars can buy. Paperwork snafus let criminals out of jail early on parole and those in charge don't notice when they slip out of their ankle monitor and go kill people.
Judges aid and abet the system by not allowing cameras in courtrooms. They do their best to hide what's going on in our courts because it's so shameful.
Our "Justice" system clearly favors the bad people. Not the law abiding citizens who are the victims of these vicious animals.
Yep, ugly jails, chain gangs and no parole. But only if you break the law. Behave yourself and none of it has to happen. This has nothing to do with race or gender. It has everything to do about law, order and what we used to call justice.
Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"
No comments:
Post a Comment