Supreme Court Cheif Justice
Some excerpts from a speech given by the Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice William Ray Price, Jr. on Wednesday, February 3 to a joint session of the Missouri General Assembly. Judge Price was appointed to the state’s highest court by former Missouri Governor and former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft. He has clearly come to the conclusion that it is time for changes in American drug policy.
Topics: Missouri, MO Chief Justice William Ray Price Jr.Today I will talk about . . . the need to rethink our strategies to deal with nonviolent crime, including drug and alcohol abuse; . . .
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Given the difficult financial situation of the state, we must look hard at the costs and effectiveness of our current statutory schemes, especially for nonviolent offenders.
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For years we have waged a “war on drugs,” enacted “three strikes and you’re out” sentencing laws, and “thrown away the key” to be tough on crime. What we did not do was check to see how much it costs, or whether we were winning or losing. In fact, it has cost us billions of dollars and we have just as much crime now as we did when we started. We have created a bottleneck by arresting far more people than we can handle down through the rest of the system.
We may have been tough on crime, but we have not been smart on crime. . . . It does no good to commit resources to law enforcement and to arrest criminals if you don’t know what you are going to do with them, or you cannot afford to do what you should with them, after they have been arrested.
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Perhaps the biggest waste of resources in all of state government is the over-incarceration of nonviolent offenders and our mishandling of drug and alcohol offenders. It is costing us billions of dollars and it is not making a dent in crime.
. . . In 1994, shortly after I came to the Court, the number of nonviolent offenders in Missouri prisons was 7,461. Today it’s 14,204. That’s almost double. In 1994, the number of new commitments for nonviolent offenses was 4,857. Last year, it was 7,220 — again, almost double. At a rate of $16,432 per offender, we currently are spending $233.4 million a year to incarcerate nonviolent offenders … not counting the investment in the 10 prisons it takes to hold these individuals at $100 million per prison. In 1994, appropriations to the Department of Corrections totaled $216,753,472. Today, it’s $670,079,452. The amount has tripled. And the recidivism rate for these individuals, who are re-incarcerated within just two years, is 41.6 percent.
. . . [W]e are spending unbelievable sums of money to incarcerate nonviolent offenders, and our prison population of new offenders is going up, not down — with a recidivism rate that guarantees this cycle will continue to worsen at a faster and faster pace, eating tens of millions of dollars in the process. Missouri cannot afford to spend this much money without getting results.
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The problem is that we are following a broken strategy of cramming inmates into prisons and not providing the type of drug treatment and job training that is necessary to break their cycle of crime. Any normal business would have abandoned this failed practice years ago, and it is costing us our shirts.
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Nonviolent offenders need to learn their lesson. Most often they need to be treated for drug and alcohol addiction and given job training. Putting them in a very expensive concrete box with very expensive guards, surrounding them with hardened criminals for long periods of time, and separating them from their families who need them and could otherwise help them does not work. Proof is in the numbers: 41 percent are back within two years.
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There is a better way. We need to move from anger-based sentencing that ignores cost and effectiveness to evidence-based sentencing that focuses on results — sentencing that assesses each offender’s risk and then fits that offender with the cheapest and most effective rehabilitation that he or she needs. We know how to do this. States across the nation are moving in this direction because they cannot afford such a great waste of resources. Missouri must move in this direction, too.
Of course, we must be careful and deliberate. This effort will require statewide coordination and revision of a number of our statutes. It will require diverting some offenders from prison and removing others from prison more quickly — after they have learned their lesson, but before they are ruined by worse offenders and before they lose their ability to return to their communities, their families, and hopefully, jobs.
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. . .From time to time I run into old senators and representatives. They like to visit about what they did in office. They never talk about the money they raised or when they buckled to political pressures. What they talk about are the good things that they did; the things they were proud of.
There will be a day when your time of service comes to an end, too. When it does and you go home, you all will want to be proud of what you have done.
Savings millions of dollars, saving lives, saving families, and making Missouri a safer and better place, is something you can be proud of.
Related posts
The Supreme Court has dismissed an application by second republican president Fredrick Chiluba on preliminary issues raised against an application to register a London judgment, which found the former president liable in a civil case three years ago.
Dr Chiluba and his co-defendants former Access Financial Services Directors Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu were held liable by UK High Court Judge Peter Smith for causing the Zambian Government the loss US$46 Million in public funds.
Delivering judgment in the matter Deputy Chief Justice Irene Mambilima sitting with other Supreme Court Judges ruled that there was no merit in the application by Dr Chiluba.
Justice Mambilima ruled that the lower court exercised its discretion to refuse to look at the preliminary matter as that would have wasted time because the issues that the defence raised could have been heard in the main matter. She further ruled that the case goes back to the High Court for determination.
On June 13, 2007 the Zambian Government obtained an ex parte order for leave to register and enforce the London Court judgment based on provisions of the Foreign Judgment Act Chapter 76 of the laws of Zambia.
But Dr Chiluba and his co-defendants former Access Financial Services (AFS) directors Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu applied to set aside the registration based on seven grounds.
Some of the grounds upon which Dr Chiluba and his co-defendants based their arguments were that the London High Court has no jurisdiction over them, that the London judgment was obtained by fraud and that they were denied fair trial by the London High Court hence judgment was obtained without giving them an opportunity to be heard.
QFM
