Uncorrected, They Will Soon Come
Recently there has been serious discussion of the draconian (and grossly inequitable) penalties meted out for possession or distribution of "crack" cocaine in comparison to punishment for possession or distribution of similar amounts of powdered cocaine. The former involved mostly African American men and many of these men will be released in the next five to ten years. Are we (society) ready to receive them?!? I see little evidence that we are.
They have been in "houses of corrections," but I dare say that few have been "corrected." As you know, billions of dollars are spent on our prisons and probably hundreds of millions of that money are allocated for education and skills-building. It would be interesting to know how many GED’s, barber’s licenses, cook’s certificates, etc., etc., result from those allocations.
In these straitened economic times everybody will cry poor-mouth, but the money is already there. California spent ten billion (yes, billion) last year on its prisons. Let’s say that 2% of that was spent on skills-building: That’s $200,000,000 dollars!!! Isn’t somebody answerable for that level of spending?
Well, I’m through railing–for now. đŸ™‚
David Evans