Posted on 03/10/2006 10:24:43 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
It had been gnawing away at him for years, especially after the Wisconsin Legislature passed the "truth in sentencing" law in 2000.
"I became concerned about the legal system's obsession with fairness, which is very different from justice," Jerry Hancock, a former attorney in the Dane County District Attorney's Office, noted during an interview at a west side coffee shop this week. "I mean, people can get a fair trial. But the results may be unjust."
Fairness, he adds, "is very important. But a system that ends up with more than half the inmates being African-American and Hispanic is not just. And I wanted to deal with those issues from a whole different perspective."
So in 2001, Hancock, who had spent three decades in the criminal justice system, pointed his life in a new direction. With the encouragement of his wife Linda, he started taking classes at Chicago Theological Seminary so that he could become a minister and provide spiritual guidance for prisoners and their families, as well as for victims of violent crime.
And don't misunderstand, says the engaging 58-year-old Hancock, whose first day as a minister at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave., was Feb. 1. He's not suggesting that hardcore criminals don't deserve to be behind bars. Heck, in his previous career he put a lot of them there.
"But they don't need to be forgotten in prison," he says. "They don't need to be in there for as long as they are under truth in sentencing, which is a perfect storm of injustice that just creates hopelessness."
Truth in sentencing, Hancock notes, eliminated parole and early release for inmates. As a result, "there's no incentive for them to change, there's no recognition of even the possibility of human transformation."
And that, Hancock asserts, "is evil."
But that's not the only problem with the longer sentences that have resulted from truth in sentencing, he contends.
It's a big reason why, even though crime rates have been falling for 17 years, Wisconsin's prisons are now operating at 120 percent capacity, Hancock says. And why the prison system continues to be an enormous drain on taxpayers.
As defense attorney Steve Hurley pointed out in a recent speech to the Dane County Bar Association, it now costs an average of $25,000 a year to keep an inmate in Wisconsin's prisons, Hancock says. Which means there's little money left over for schools and health care and other social needs.
Of course, the hard-liners would argue that tougher and longer sentences are a key reason the crime rate has plummeted.
Balderdash, says Hancock.
Minnesota, he points out, has a crime rate comparable to Wisconsin's. Yet it incarcerates roughly one-fourth as many people as Wisconsin does, and it spends about one-fourth as much money on prisons.
"So obviously there are other ways of controlling crime than simply locking everybody up," he says.
In his speech to the Dane County Bar, Hurley suggested that the system won't change until judges "face the facts" and think about the consequences of the sentences they're handing out.
"That would be great," Hancock says. "But the ultimate solution is to change the law and bring back good-time credits and early release so that prisoners have some incentives" to improve.
"Now, that would also involve a shift in resources," he says. "You'd need more probation officers, more bracelets, more monitoring. You'd need more re-entry programs and you'd need jobs for people.
"So it's a complicated business. But the fundamental fact is that the system as it works now is unjust."
Hancock, who lives on the near west side, in the same house that he and his wife purchased in 1973, says he won't be surprised if the right-wingers who dominate the Legislature scoff at his remarks or suggest that his brain's gone soft.
Not so, he says with a laugh.
"I know - perhaps better than most - that a lot of people in prison need to be there. But they don't need to be forgotten. Their families don't need to be punished.
"And we have a responsibility to make sure they're better human beings when they come out than when they went in."
The death penalty should be applied liberally. VERY liberally.
"It's a big reason why, even though crime rates have been falling for 17 years, Wisconsin's prisons are now operating at 120 percent capacity, Hancock says. And why the prison system continues to be an enormous drain on taxpayers."
Hmmm perhaps keping the prisons full is causing the drop in crime.
Far left wing church that claims to be CHRISTIAN!
I guess we need to jail more white people, then, that'll make it fair.
Or maybe turn a certain percentage of black and Hispanic criminals loose until the numbers are proportional, that would help improve our society.
Affirmative action for prisons. Prisons should recruit more whites. Maybe provide some special inducements for whites only? Private quarters, dental coverage, 401K?
"Far left wing church that claims to be CHRISTIAN!"
Lots of Christians are politcally liberal.
Were you being sarcastic? ;-)
This is one expense that is 100% worth it. Think of all the lives we save by locking up these animals.
Christianity is in some respects incompatible with conservative government. If your religion is sincere, you have to forgive everyone and try to save everyone. No sinner, no matter how bad, can be abandoned.
But that it is not the case with secularized conservative governments. They may feel no qualms about locking people up and throwing away the key, and certainly care nothing for the eternal salvation of convicted criminals.
All I needed to read was United Church of Christ.
DO you belong to this far left wing "Church"?
Did you ever notice the access to media leftists have? Why is this even a story? The guy is just a lawyer.
Do we hear from every lawyer in the country? No - only the bleeding heart nutters.
He conveniently uses Minnesota for comparison. However, Michigan or Illinois would be more appropriate. I'm sure North Dakota has less prison costs as well.
Human transformation is wonderful. The problem is many of these criminals transform other humans into corpses.
>>more than half the inmates being African-American and Hispanic is not just>>
Do the crime, do the time. The author is one of those guys who thinks we should all drink kool-aid and sink in perfect harmony. Would someone send him to a terrorist nation with a t-shirt made of an American flag?
"Fairness, he adds, "is very important. But a system that ends up with more than half the inmates being African-American and Hispanic is not just. "
What's not just about it, unless he thinks we are letting the white criminals go free? There is truly a bizarro culture out there that sees everything upside down from the way society has functioned well for generations.
>>Lots of Christians are politcally liberal>>
Yes, oto bad their church-going fails to translate into Bible-reading. If so, they wouldn't be left.
"Do we hear from every lawyer in the country? No - only the bleeding heart nutters."
I wanted to put a "Bleeding Heart Alert" in the title, but thought the Mods might yank it, LOL! :)
They'd be a lot less problems if we simply brought back hanging on a state by state basis.
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