Seattle is one of most progressive cities in America, constantly confronting musty ideas, long-festering problems and seeking betterment of its citizens.
The latest example: the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution resolving to end the jailing of young lawbreakers. The council seeks to cut off the “school-to-prison pipeline” by finding alternatives to incarceration.
“This is a big win for the campaign by EPIC (Ending the Prison Industrial Complex),” Reagan Jackson commented in a Truthout article. “EPIC is leading the fight against the King County (Seattle) plan to build a $210 million juvenile detention center.
“The organization hopes to redirect funding from the mass incarceration of youth and toward community-based prevention, intervention and diversion programs and services.”
EPIC doesn’t know how the goal will be reached but hopes to find out by holding community meetings. The aim: not to punish anyone for law breaking but rather to work with the person who committed the crime and its victim for a satisfactory solution.
Offenders are still accountable for their crimes but given a chance to rectify them. Jerrell Davis, Seattle artist and activist, says:
“When we talk about detention and no incarceration people are askance but jailing doesn’t work. It doesn’t rehabilitate them. It doesn’t humanize them. Recidivism is 60 percent. People go back to prison for the same crime they went in for.
The United States has the largest prison population in the world, 2.5 million. Seattle’s “restorative justice” program may be a solution.
From last to first
Oh, my, how things have changed on the cannabis battlefront. A press release from the recent District of Columbia state fair boasted: “For the first time ever we’re hosting a contest for local pot growers to show off their finest plants and buds.”
D.C. voted to legalize marijuana earlier this year. So Jim Hightower, vox-populist columnist, asks why not celebrate pot at state fairs? He notes that they already hold contests for best home brew, best ice cream, best pickles, best compost and best floral arrangements.
Progress. From demonization of the weed to legalization and celebration at state fairs!
NRA rules Congress
Every time the country endures the frequent mass shootings the welkin rings with cries for gun
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