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Land of the Second Chance

Allen227 Wrote: Sep 19, 2009 2:39 PM

The prison system in this country has gotten to be so out of control with its 2.3 million incarcerated I believe it is time we created a new clemency process designed to reduce the prison popultation by allowing five member panels in every county of a state that sent a person to prison be established to determine who out of these 2.3 million do not need to be in prison and help them get back on track instead of wasting away because they made a mistake.
Clemency or mercy is the most powerful tool in criminal justice and if used properly it can cut our prison cost in half without risking the public's safety. In fact we could be safer if a smaller prison system is more concentrated on monitoring only serious and violent offenders.
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Land of the Second Chance

CHICAGO -- The streets of West Garfield Park provide a distant vista of the Sears Tower and closer views of corner drug dealers, abandoned buildings still defended by barbed wire and trash pickers pushing shopping carts on their slow rounds. It is a place, in T.S. Eliot's image, of "rats' feet over broken glass." It is also one of the two or three Chicago neighborhoods receiving the most ex-offenders back from prison. Their welcome is uncertain, but their success is essential.