WORKING TOWARD REDUCING CRIME

Look who's talking. Consider the source. It's often impossible to
accurately evaluate what's being said unless you know who's saying it.

So before we get to what he is proposing, let's first examine some
pertinent details about Lawrence T. Jablecki, whom you may recall as a
participant in previous segments of our ongoing discussion and debate of
our criminal justice system.

He is director of the Brazoria County Community Supervision and Corrections
Department and has worked with thousands of adult probationers in his
21-plus years in the criminal justice system.

He has a doctorate in philosophy, serves on the adjunct faculty of the
University of Houston-Clear Lake and has taught university courses to
hundreds of inmates over the past dozen years.

He is white and has an adopted daughter who is black.

And so we can see that he is a thinker, a man who values knowledge, an
administrator with years of experience in his field and a parent in a
situation that makes him keenly aware of society's racial disparities.

Race, Finances Shouldn't Count

He notes that, while African-Americans make up 12 percent of our state's
population, they comprise 44 percent of the prison and jail population. You
might expect the breakdown to be about the same for probation as for prison
and jail. But it isn't.

Jablecki points out that African-Americans make up only 21 percent of
Texas' adults on probation, a milder form of punishment than prison. Also,
instead of prison, courts can send people to a Substance Abuse and Felony
Prevention program (SAFP) for 9 to 12 months. The SAFP African-American
population is only about 27 percent.

"Collectively considered," Jablecki said, "I do not believe that our law
enforcement agencies, prosecutors, judges, probation or parole officials
are racists attempting to destroy the African-American community in the
form of incarceration." However, he also says he has "no doubt of the
existence of some racists in all of these categories and when identified,
they should be publicly banished from their profession."

More African-American men ages 21 to 29 become targets of the drug war in
Texas, Jablecki says, not because they are breaking laws more than whites,
but because they are easier targets.

"The socioeconomic environments they inhabit make it relatively easy to
detect, arrest, prosecute and incarcerate them compared to the white
population in more affluent environments who possess monetary resources to
pay for expensive drug treatment and legal counsel," he says. "The color of
a person's skin and the size of his wallet should have no influence in the
administration of criminal justice."

Lest you get the wrong idea and think Jablecki soft on crime, listen to his
routine spiel to probationers and prison inmates: "You are in a deliberate
conflict with the rules of society; you do not have a psychological
disorder or disease that both explains and excuses your conduct. You made a
deliberate decision to commit a crime; you were free to do otherwise and
should be held legally accountable. Those of you who have committed acts of
violence against other persons or are career criminals deserve to be
incarcerated for many years, some to life without the possibility of
parole. A few evil and violent persons deserve to die, but I am opposed to
capital punishment because innocent persons are convicted and executed."

But he also likens our drug war to "a rare form of cancer" and says it "has
destroyed countless lives because the battle plan has been under the
exclusive control of law enforcement and criminal justice."

Putting Reputation On Line

And so he is speaking out, going public with more comment backing his
conclusion than our space can accommodate here. He is putting his
credentials on the table for everyone to examine, putting his reputation on
the line.

He is calling for major changes. He is calling for Texas lawmakers to
"demonstrate moral and political courage," when the gavel bangs the start
of the next legislative session.

He is calling upon them to stop building prisons and redirect funds to
education, health and human services "in order to prevent a large number of
our citizens, juveniles and adults from beginning a life of crime."

And he is calling upon the state's leaders to "appoint a nonpartisan
blue-ribbon commission of recognized experts in medicine, pharmacology,
public heath and criminology. Its mission is to recommend a new set of drug
laws to increase public safety and our public's health."

Look who's talking.