All I Want for Christmas is an Accountable Supermajority
After a thunderstorm of post-election recounts across the Golden State, it appears that Democrats have reclaimed a supermajority in the California Legislature. Whatever one’s political sway – and this applies to national election results, as well – it’s important for all voters to respect that “the people have spoken,” turn the page and hope for […]
Correctional Reforms Report is Encouraging
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) report,“California’s Historic Corrections Reforms,” reveals that recent historic correctional reforms have reduced incarceration levels of low-level offenders without broadly increasing crime rates. That was a goal of Proposition 47 and we now see evidence that the goal is being achieved. Every Californian has a fundamental right to be safe […]
The Great Stampede of 2016
In certain parts of America, Baptist churches still hold “cowbell” services that offer churchgoers a Sunday succession of clergy sharing brief vignettes intended to motivate and inspire their congregation to commit to lives of public service. If a shepherd addresses his flock beyond the allotted time, a moderator rings a cowbell, which is the preacher’s […]
July 4th a Reminder to Help Veterans with Combat Disorders
The Fourth of July is no doubt a special time for Americans to enjoy apple pie, fireworks and family, but we should also seize this day as a time to reflect on the great freedom our nation enjoys – and the people who have made that possible, our beloved veterans. And we should most certainly […]
Support Rural California
Most Californians live in big cities and sprawling suburbs, and are increasingly familiar with nanny state and local government bureaucracies that ban everything from foam food containers to plastic bags, indoor tanning by minors to donated clothing drop boxes, and prevent restaurants from giving out toys to kids or selling fois gras to diners. But […]
A Jobs Agenda, Now
We are in trouble. National unemployment is over 9 percent. When we count the underemployed, and those who have quit looking for jobs, we reach the devastating reality that 1 in 5 is out of productive work. Labor force participation for blacks, Hispanics, youth, and middle aged Americans all lag even further behind.
1 in 4 Americans owes more on their mortgage than their home is worth. Entire towns and rural areas display blight. Home foreclosures and for-sale signs are common even in the most well-to-do neighborhoods. The Central Valley of California is now the new dust bowl, owing to federal water regulations which prize a one-inch delta smelt fish over the livelihoods of agriculture families.
Worker wages are not going up. Business capital is being invested abroad in no small part due to federal and state bureaucrats that have been over-regulating and pouring “sand in the gears” of the free enterprise system. Can anyone name a city in any state (save Texas) where one may get a construction permit in less than 8 months?
The State of Re-Entry
Last week the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the chronic overcrowding of California’s prisons was tantamount to “cruel and unusual punishment”. As such, the state is mandated by the court to release between 36,000 and 46,000 offenders from its custody. The 20 year narration of protest, admonishment, and now judicial ruling by the Federal courts should come as little surprise to those Californians who were paying attention. It should be a wakeup call to those that were not.
Choosing which prisoner to release from their sentence is a job for Solomon but Governor Brown and the prison board will have to do. And unless there is a new prison growing in the desert, inmates will soon be coming to a neighborhood near you.
Re-entry is a term used to describe the return of the formerly incarcerated back into society as a whole. The journey for the criminal is demanding, uncertain and dangerous. There is small hope for success when the recidivism rate in the state is above 70%. Families, to whom close to 90% return to, are ill equipped to adjust to the return of their loved one, if they are even loved at all. Communities that are already tense will amplify to near panic unless some guidance arrives before the court appointed time limit for prisoner release arrives.