Suzi Wizowaty

Last Friday, we spent several hours debating (and ultimately passing) S.292, a bill that makes some excellent changes to the current "corrections" system. It's a good bill; it makes many processes more fair and saves money. But some people on both sides of the aisle vehemently opposed it. Most of the opposition seemed to center on a fear of "those people."

It's not my intention to whitewash crime or diminish for one second the suffering of victims of crime, but rather to remember that the people who commit crimes are simply that: people who have committed crimes.

S. 292 does three main things: reduces the number of detainees in prison, moves people off probation more quickly, and decreases the number of people incarcerated.

Here's but one example of the wisdom of this bill, having to do with detainees. If you're charged with a non-violent offense, and the judge feels the risk of your fleeing is low, you're offered the option of posting bail. If you can afford it, you do. If you can't raise the money, you have to await adjudcation in jail. Vermont typically has about 400 such "detainees" in jail at a time. Remember, detainees have not been convicted of a crime. Everyone who can afford bail returns to his or her community.

But is this fair? Just because you can't afford bail, you spend the time in jail? At what everyone knows is a huge cost to the state? Addressing this inequity, S.292 directs the dept. of corrections to reduce the number of detainees to 300 by 2011, using various other strategies to monitor whereabouts, and thereby saving the state a lot of money.

Some legislators raised all kinds of objections at "those people" being "released" to "my" community. This line of thinking is problematic.

First of all, "those people" are us. They are our neighbors, our relatives, our children, us.

Second, "those people" haven't been convicted of any crime. Remember, a person charged with a crime is not a criminal. Not in this country, where you're innocent until proven guilty.

And third, "those people" who have money are back home in their communities anyway. Do we really mean to punish people for not having money?

S.292 invests in transitional housing so that offenders who have served their sentence aren't kept in jail for lack of suitable housing. It lets more non-violent offenders serve their sentences in home confinement. And it attempts to clean up the probation system.

It treats offenders as people.

The point is, when we think about each other as fellow citizens--prone to both heartbreaking mistakes and extraordinary acts of kindness--we are more likely to make good and fair, rather than punitive, public policy. I was delighted to support this bill.