People are in an uproar over revelations that Jerry Case, the man accused of kidnapping a Gastonia family last week, is a former death row inmate who was arrested three times since he was paroled in 2007 from a life sentence for murder. As my dad would have said, “Hasn’t anybody around here got any sense?”
North Carolina’s parole system, which, to be fair, is a collection of some of the most overworked people in the state, is taking the heat for Case’s actions, which came a mere two weeks after another NC parolee, Patrick Burris, killed five people in Gaffney, SC. Someone’s head is probably going to roll over North Carolina’s de facto “catch and release” imprisonment policies, but that won’t solve the huge underlying problem of overcrowded jails.
May I suggest a possible remedy? Stop filling up our jails and prisons to the bursting point with drug offenders. Law enforcement and prison officials nationwide have repeatedly noted that much of their time, and their facilities’ space, is taken up with people whose crime was buying or selling drugs, and it’s an open secret that some police forces are jacking up their arrest statistics by making easy pot busts. In addition, the use of “three strikes and you’re out” life sentences for repeat cocaine dealers has become such a big problem, some states are repealing those laws as they see their prisons forced to release the likes of Jerry Case in order to make room for druggies. A relatively simple solution is to quit enforcing pot laws. Don’t “officially” decriminalize pot, just don’t enforce the laws against it – kind of like jaywalking. It’s a strategy that, I feel, citizens would readily accept if it was explained properly as an effort to keep more dangerous criminals in prison. It’s worth a shot and, in any case, it’s way better than letting murderers run loose.
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2009.
Hey, this is what Ive been saying for years! I want full decriminalization but Ill take what I can get.