Even if the same things are happening in other cities, if it is happening in New Orleans, it is a New Orleans problem and because we live here, we need to fix it. I think that what Seung was getting at is that even though we are short of police and jail space post-K, our tendency to add more and more of both has failed to work for over 30 years. That’s all the evidence I need to convince me we need to do something different. Improvements to the criminal justice system is SORELY needed, but leaving it solely to the criminal justice system just plain doesn’t cut it.

As for God and science, as a person of faith, I believe that science is another means by which we seek to understand that which God has created. Faith and belief in science are not mutually exclusive, and I thank God for the experts who have the passion, the time, and the skill to try to point us in the right direction. That said, I’m grateful for the pointing in the right direction they did at the crime summit, but now it’s time to actually MOVE in that direction.

We HAVE been “educated” on the issue: we live it out every day. The system isn’t working. We know what we’re asking for: that it WORKS. Don’t let politics corrupt focus. Federalizing the system may or may not work; I’m with you on the magician’s handkerchief trick of not providing the political cover for bad ideas. But your “good” ideas might be turned to someone’s bad ideas, too, so it’s best not to politicize the process at all. I’m sure it doesn’t matter to anyone here if the victims of our streets are progressive or conservative, Democratic or Republican or Independent.

We ARE the data, we ARE the research, we ARE the evidence. I’ll put my faith in God over science, so we’ll disagree on that point, come what may.

The other important thing to remember is this isn’t a New Orleans problem. This is an urban cities problem. Los Angeles is having a devil of a time on its own.

By the way, I like Shelley. You’re working for one of the good ones.

many good thoughts here, but i’d just like to add from the perspective of someone working in city hall and someone who’s been doing criminal justice and juvenile justice reform work for a few years now.

number one, i hope that anyone who does take a leadership role makes sure they are educated on the issue. it’s important that as we demand change and reform that we know what we are asking for. i thought most of the platform presented at the rally was pretty reasonable stuff, but it’s really important that we not ask to implement bad ideas. sounds obvious, but bad ideas get implemented all the time in cities around the country and countries around the world in reaction to public outrage. public anger often supplies the political cover to make bad ideas into bad public policy. my concern with the rally and march was that it might unintentionally give cover to some radically bad ideas in the name of public safety.

there are a lot of progressive folks in new orleans who have made crim justice reform their life’s work. mary howell, david utter, xochitl bervera, some of the folks at the justice center and at jjpl really know this stuff and have a local context. they have the research and they have the progressive vision. i hope that the organizers of the rally connect with some of the local experts to turn good ideas into good public policy.

we spend a third of our general fund on police and detention. pre-katrina we had the 4th largest jail in america. we were averaging over 100k arrests per year in a city of 460k people. we are number one or two in the country, right there with nyc, in numbers of law enforcement officers per capita. but despite hundreds of millions of dollars, despite leading the world in incarceration, despite hundreds of thousands of arrests, despite more law enforcement than anyone — these policies have still failed to make us safer. our jail has grown from a capacity of 850 in 1974 to a max capacity of 8500 by 2004, despite a 25% decrease in the city’s population in that same time frame. there has been no corresponding increase in public safety. in fact, our crime rate went up along with the size of opp.

so it is critically important that as we ask for solutions that we make sure we ask for something different than what we’ve been doing if we want a different result. and we need to make sure what we want is not only in line with good progressive politics, but also backed up by good science, data, research, and evidence to prove the public safety benefit. and as much as i believe in the power of citizen activists, that kind of research doesn’t usually emerge from the dining room tables of our neighborhood association meetings. it requires some technical expertise and assistance, which we are fortunate to have on tap with several local orgs.

i organized the september crime summit. i continue to be the city council staffer taking on the bulk of the criminal justice reform work. and i’m available anytime to meet with and work with local citizens who want to fix our broken criminal justice system. anyone should feel free to contact me anytime if i can be of assistance with anyone who wants to fix our cj system.

best regards,

seung hong
legislative director
councilmember shelley midura’s office
shong@cityofno.com
504.658.1010

Drugs are 95% of the reason children end up in foster care. That is a conservative number. and a decriminalizing the use of such, will in time bring a new wave of addicts to your city. And part of that , in time will be a wave of unattended to children. The social cost of this are immesurable.

Drug addicts don’t think like you , clearly and rationally. they just dont just work that way. You cannot say if I give them this consequence, or that or remove this consequence of that they will do X. They are addicts. They ill do anything to get a fix. I am not speaking of the dealers, not the casual users, but rather the addicts. Anything you do to increase the pool of addicts you bring future social havoc.

Addicts do anything, including leaving their children behind and babies home alone. They love drugs more than anything including their children. But, when New Orleans is up and running again, you will notice the welfare of children. Children of addicts are left behind, neglected, needing to be removed form their homes. And yes addicts have sex, and children.

Addicts have migrations to certain states. You’d be adding the your city to that migration. And addicts don’t think rationally. They just cannot.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”

JFK

But what made me want to write today was reading MF’s comment about putting noviolent drug (and other) offenders to work–an organization here in Mpls is doing just that:

“The restorative justice approach recognizes that crime is wrong and should not occur. But in its aftermath there are both ‘dangers’ and ‘opportunities.’ The danger is that the community and the crime victim emerge from the experience more damaged, disrespected and feeling less safe. An offender may frequently be more alienated and less cooperative with society. The opportunity is that injustice is recognized, people are restored and future behavior is clarified so that participants are safer, more respectful and more empowered to make things right.”

Read more about the program at http://www.ppna.org/rj.html

I am sure that setting up such a program in post-Katrina New Orleans would present a great challenge. Here it was iniated by and remains under the jurisdiction of the city’s strongest neighborhood group and receives funding from government and philanthropic sources (this area is replete with foundations formed by many of its industrial and retail giants like 3M, Target, General Mills, etc.) as well as fees charged to participants.

At any rate, I thought I would pass on some hopeful and maybe helpful information on a successful restorative justice program. Just one of many approaches that can help disrupt the culture of violence and apathy that fills so much of so many urban Americans’ lives.

Good insights, but you repeat too many cliches. The criminal justice system is not broken–it works perfectly well. The criminal defense bar wins and “criminals go free” via the “revolving door” because every American (even poor black New Orleanians) are entitled to due process and NOPD and the DA’s office simply don’t put together compelling cases that they can prove before juries.

Don’t say the criminal justice system is broken, emphasize that the cops and DA, his trial chief and his deputies are inept, absent from the courtrooms, and too focused on conviction percentages and other bullshit stats. These are people more interested in wasting everyone’s time by dragging out possession cases and threatening multiple bills on anyone with priors than actually building and proving cases against violent offenders. “But witnesses don’t cooperate!!” they howl at every opportunity. No shit. With clowns like this charged with protection and prosecution, I wouldn’t show my face at Tulane and Broad either. So, these same clowns force ADAs to go to trial and lose most cases because nobody believes the cops.

Back to my original point–the criminal justice system works exactly as it is supposed to, the leaders of law enforcement are just inept.

Focus on getting Jordan, Brandt, Freeman, Holohan, Famularo, Defillo and Riley (aforementioned clowns) to fight violent and property crimes. The junkies will always be with us and they don’t rob and kill folks.

I’d happily buy a frosty Liuzza’s Amber or Coors Light to anyone who can point to a conviction the Orleans Parish DA’s Office got on a car theft at trial post-K or a residential burglary that NOPD solved and successfully brought to conviction.