JUSTICE, NOT VENGEANCE

Re "Catch and release" by Janelle Weiner (SN&R Feature, April
2):

Catch and release" didn't quite land the big shark, though we see his
teeth as he glides by in the third paragraph, where Weiner notes the
resistance to deincarceration and changing "three strikes" among those
who have a financial conflict of interest, including the [California
Correctional Peace Officers Association] and all kinds of politicians
(not to mention drug lords in Mexico and Afghanistan).

But why have voters clung to three strikes? Why are they more
interested in vengeance than justice? Why are they acting just like an
abused wife, clinging to a possessive husband who has brainwashed her
into fearful compliance with his protection racket?

And why are we still addicted to Prohibition, which cements us in the
war on drugs? Why stick to a cure worse than the disease? Why continue
to support laws based on such atrociously bad science? These laws are
themselves the most common cause of crime nowadays. Such irrational
obstinacy must be a very bad example for youthful minds.

While I'm sure the Folsom Transitional Treatment program is estimable,
it can't address our societal self-abuse via continued criminalization
of self-medication. Mammals have been self-medicating since long
before apes appeared on the scene, let alone men (women of course were
created after men, making them the most fully evolved). Acting like
legislation and enforcement can change human nature indicates that
drugs are not the worst enemy of rational thinking.

In any case, the kind of behavior that is the alleged reason for drug
prohibition is already illegal. But if those laws can't fix offensive
behavior, more laws about partially related activities that are
intrinsically human solve nothing.

Also hidden between the lines (of "nonserious, nonviolent" in the
first paragraph) is the reality behind the standard phrase "serious or
violent." Law enforcement and the news media use this phrase all the
time but people don't realize that "serious" in this case includes
practically all nonviolent drug crimes. In effect, whoever uses this
phrase is lying by being very misleading.

One way to make the Folsom program even more effective could be to
expand it to also address our addictions to fossil fuels and double
standards.

Muriel Strand

Sacramento