ARE MORE PRISONS THE RIGHT ANSWER?

Are we just going to keep building more and more prisons?

Is passing more and more taxes on working people in order to house
criminals who refuse to earn their way in society really the answer?

In my conversations with some judicial figures, I have learned people
sometimes are sentenced to probation simply because there isn't enough room
for them in jail.

We sure don't want to let pedophiles and murderers roam free so we can move
in someone who stole some lip gloss and a bikini at Wal-Mart, but you
shouldn't be able to take whatever you want whenever you want it ­ without
paying for it, anyhow.

We are going to build a new jail in DeKalb County, and the sooner the
better. We need to do it ourselves before the federal government gets
involved. That would be devastating to our county from a financial standpoint.

Law enforcement officials tell me drugs are involved in the majority of
crimes ­ domestic violence aggravated by intoxication or stealing things to
pawn for drug money.

It sounds corny, but it is true. Don't do drugs. People who buy drugs
support bad people. They enslave themselves.

That said, we should throw the book at drug dealers and put drug addicts in
treatment programs rather than prison.

Creative sentencing for non-violent offenders is a good thing. For some
people, there is no stigma or fear in sending them to jail, but the thought
terrifies most of us.

For those who have a casual attitude, perhaps the answer is for the judge
to think of something that will punish the criminal in ways that will hit
home for that person.

We must also consider whether sending someone to prison will harm his or
her family.

Better to slap a monitoring device on that person and limit their
activities rather than put him in prison for a year while his family
starves and gets evicted.

Selfishness seems to be the core of criminal behavior. It's time to grow up
and stop placing the burden on the rest of us.