Up in Smoke, Plus an Insightful Opinion Piece

I want all of my faithful readers to go to the bank or an ATM and withdraw a fist full of cash, and then take it home, build a bonfire in the backyard and throw the money onto it. No? You mean you don’t care to do that? Then why are you about to allow some elected officials do just that with your hard-earned dollars?

This isn't hard to follow: A huge portion of your tax dollars go toward keeping non-violent felons locked up; the vast majority of them are incarcerated on drug charges; drug courts around the county have proven to be a successful alternative to incarceration, thus preserving tax dollars and putting them to use for better purposes, such as education.

Locally, the Cleveland Municipal Court instituted a hugely successful drug court over a decade ago, when the County Common Pleas Court spurned federal dollars to set up a program. Why the county failed to act a decade ago is a story unto itself, but now county Court officials have relented and are preparing to set up a Drug Court — but one that is sure to fail miserably. No matter, they can always blame the abusers who come in front of the Court for the failure.

I can just hear them now: “You know how it is, try as you might, you just can’t help those people.”

But wait a minute. Why has the Muny Drug Court been so successful? It’s because a compassionate judge, Larry Jones, ran it. Now that he is set to move up to the Court of Appeals, Judge Anita Laster Mays is set to take it over, and the success will, without a doubt, continue.

A retired Black judge recently told me that had she ran the Drug Court it would not have been nearly as successful. Why? Because this wise jurist honestly stated that she simply did not possess the right “judicial temperament” for the position. In other words, she lacked the compassion needed to change the lives of the addicts that come before that Court.

So, what does the county Court do once its arm was twisted to do the right thing? In their infinite wisdom they appoint the most ill-tempered, acerbic and least compassionate judge on the county bench to run the Drug Court. Throw another fist full of dollars on that bonfire, because, instead of lives being turned around and people being kept out of the prison system, the only thing that’s going to beat the people who come before this mean-spirited judge to prison are going to be the headlights on the bus.

Why did he get the nod? Because it’ll look good on his résumé when he seeks higher office, I suppose. Oh, and it certainly didn’t help that the judge best suited for the job just happens to be a Republican. Talk about playing politics at the expense of people... shouldn’t the feds be investigating that too?

This isn’t about a “hug-a-thug” program... I don’t give two hoots how you feel about addicts, or the formerly incarcerated — well, I take that last part back because you’re reading a formerly incarcerated person right now, one who for a couple of years in the early 80s attempted to drown his pain in Remy Martin.

What I really want for you to care are about are your tax dollars, and how they’re going to be going up in smoke faster than a Rasta smoking a giant spliff; care about America being five percent of the world’s population, while housing 25 percent of the world’s prison population (the majority for drug offenses) and going broke in the process; care about the upcoming hearings in Washington that will focus of the 30-year failed “War on Drugs,” which actually is a war on people. But you can start by caring about which judge runs the local drug court and how it’s being set up to fail.

And following is a brilliant opinion piece by a good friend:

Successful Reentry: A Societal Imperative

By James Walker

What does our community expect of persons convicted of crimes? If incarcerated, one should complete the lawfully imposed sentence. If not incarcerated, one should adhere to the terms of probation and successfully complete that term of probation. Once those responsibilities have been met, then what? Before answering that question, one should think long and hard, for the ramifications of the answer offered loom large and profound.

We might glibly assert that once the requirements of a lawfully imposed sentence are satisfied, the convicted person gets restored to his or her place in the community and resumes a lawful pursuit of happiness. Indeed, both the federal and state constitutions intimate as much. And, what does the pursuit of happiness entail?

Happiness consists of different things for different people, you might say. We might agree that everyone’s happiness—in some way—connects to the ability to earn a decent living, to having a roof over his or her head, to having enough food to eat, enough clothes to wear, and the opportunity to reach for a level of success consistent with his or her capability and effort. Or, apparently, we might not so agree.

Six thousand former prisoners return to Cuyahoga County each year from the more than 30 Ohio state prisons currently operating. All of those 6,000 persons, according to our government, have been sufficiently punished for their misdeeds. Yet, the overwhelming majority of those 6,000 people continue to suffer additional punishment long after their return to our community.

That additional punishment takes many forms. Often intractable difficulties in securing employment of any kind—let alone any that pays a living wage—along with similarly-acute problems with securing independent housing in anything other than a run down shanty or other near-slum-like dwelling severely impedes any substantial progress in the aforementioned pursuit of happiness. But then, don’t we all know that?

Why do we continue to allow this? Do we not understand the direct connection between successful reentry and a decent job? Between a decent job and decent housing? Between the lack of these and the commission of new crimes in our community? Do we not care enough about public safety to seriously engage in proactive efforts to enhance opportunities for former offenders to earn an honest and viable living?

Where is the righteous, moral, and principled outrage at such an egregious failure to realistically redress these festering wounds in our community? With all the professed concern for “fiscal responsibility” in these acutely- recessionary times, why do we not demand more of those entrusted with the huge amounts of money supposedly targeted to support the successful reentry of those 6,000 returnees? Do we really lack the brain power to do better, or, heaven forbid, do we simply lack the heart?

Successful reentry lies not only in the interest of those 6,000 returnees, and their families. Our continuing inability, or unwillingness, to seriously engage these issues works against the larger interests of the entire community.

Walker was incarcerated in Ohio prisons for 30 year for murder; he earned a bachelor’s degree while incarcerated and now works in the field of prisoner reentry — living proof that people can and do change.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com

Frazier's From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.frombehindthewall.com.
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