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INTRODUCTION I Remember When I Was a Child; Having Been Born

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INTRODUCTION I Remember When I Was a Child; Having Been Born INTRODUCTION I remember when I was a child; having been born and raised in the United States Air Force, listening to fighter jets take off and land. The power of the jet engines roaring, the sight of the highly skilled pilots performing seemingly impossible maneuvers willing to sacrifice everything, including their life, for freedom and justice for all. To this day the sight and sound of Jet Fighters and military aircraft, to me, is the sound of the protection of freedom. I certainly realize that this is not the case for everyone. Many years later I would enlist in the Army. I learned about the United States Flag and its history. I came to understand the United States Flag was a living, breathing symbol drafted by our most gifted founders and sewn together by patriots who had a dream for a better life. The most prestigious place on the battlefield in our founding years was that of the flag bearer, the person who carried the flag in to battle. They were often unarmed and always in the very front. If they were shot or wounded, the next available soldier would pick up that flag and continue to run forward in to battle until victory or until he too would drop. The Flag led all troops in to battle, it helped identify where the battle was amongst the smoke and confusion. The Flag and the idea of Freedom were to NEVER be captured. Rather than allow capture, the flag would be torn in to little pieces and distributed among its soldiers to keep hope for freedom and justice alive. It was to inspire those who were losing hope. 1 The PURPOSE was that anyone from anywhere could come to this Country and not fear persecution, that the meek would be protected and that differing opinions would be respected and revered with the closing line in our Pledge to that Flag and our cause was“ ~ and justice for All”. The original intent of our founding was to be a mosaic as a Nation and Not a melting pot. This great history inspired me as it had so many others. I was then, and will always be, willing to make that ultimate sacrifice to preserve the ideals of freedom and our way of life. We weren’t perfect then, as a Nation, and we are not perfect now. But we are resilient. Why American Corrections ~ Isn’t My life’s path led me to the criminal justice system 38 years ago and 32 years ago it began here in NH. I strongly submit to you today as a public servant for over three decades that significant reform is necessary, not only in our criminal justice system, but in our societal and individual thinking as well if we are to persevere as an undivided Nation that hails to be “indivisible with liberty and justice for all”. The MISSION of Corrections is public safety. The PURPOSE of Corrections is detention, for pretrial folks who may pose a risk of flight or are considered a threat to public safety who cannot make bail and punishment for those that are sentenced. 2 PUNISHMENT in the United States Correctional System is best described by the American Correctional Association. In accordance with the ACA, the concept of punishment in America cites “Inmates are not in jail to be punished, they are in jail as punishment”. Corrections then have a duty to provide for the care, custody and management of adult offenders while incarcerated. One of our biggest challenges in this Country today is addiction and the misuse of both legal and illicit drugs. Drug users and addicts are not necessarily a risk to public safety or a risk of flight. Whether or not to punish drug use behavior is the current change in America’s thinking and rightfully so. An awakening for those of us in the criminal justice system AND our political representation is not only possible, but is now necessary if we have any hope to make a positive difference in our approach on addressing the challenge in managing Drug misuse and Addiction. FACTS MATTER. SCIENCE MATTERS. In the United States, there are 2.1 Million Incarcerated, 6.6 million in our correctional system. Corrections was originally intended to be a detention facility for Criminals with an effort towards rehabilitation. ALL branches of the Criminal Justice System have experienced a very fast expansion of mission creep. Our ever-changing society continues to reshape the level of demand of our response. 3 Today Corrections is tasked with being a detention center, a mental health institution, a hospital and a school. At times, we are even a nursing home. The largest mental health facility in every community across the Nation is the local jail. In Modern Corrections Our categories of offender are: Career criminals Situational offenders Sex offenders Mentally ill offenders Drug users 160 – all but violent = 13 inmates. Back out Mentally ill, Drug possession, Crimes committed in order to get drugs, inmates who pose no threat to public safety. The COST of corrections for our County is over $38,325. Per year, less than some States and more than others, but trending with the National average. I have often pondered what sort of a treatment program for addiction or mental health could $38,000. per year buy for each individual who needs it? Based on our current collective thinking, what good does one year in jail do either specifically or generally? The fact is, it doesn't do society much good at all. 4 The business of Corrections demands professional personnel with longevity – in order to have the experience required to do what our communities expect of us. Nationally now, Correctional Officers average length of stay is 1.5 years. 72% of corrections professionals have less than 5 years on the job. What we need from our primary personnel is often not available as they are not with us long enough. Why? It is a thankless job. (Media example) It earns less than other components of the CJ system. So Truly, What is society’s realistic expectation of our success given our current multi faceted mission and often times, lack of support? We struggle daily with trying to balance mission creep and expectation vs. funding. I mentioned Mission creep earlier as a significant challenge for modern law enforcement. No component of the Criminal Justice System was ever intended to be in the drug rehabilitation business. And yet that net thrown over society, which has become our mission, grows wider every day. FACTS MATTER. SCIENCE MATTERS. Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion or LEAD is a popular program growing Nationally where addicts who surrender to the police are referred to treatment without fear of conviction. I am all for avoiding prison for an addiction, I just do not subscribe to addiction management being the responsibility of first responders, the police or corrections. 5 Well, for now, it is in our mission description and so ~ We now provide Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) to addicted persons while they are incarcerated in hopes that they will continue this treatment upon release and not utilize illegal substances, or worse, use them and die. And we should do this, it is the right thing to do based on our current system and our County’s increased desire for harm reduction practice. Why should an addict have to surrender to a fire department or a police agency for help, which many communities are advocating today? Why does one have to get arrested in our Country to get treatment? THE PROBLEM with our criminal justice system and public policy is that we think we can control human behavior. Our Academies have recruits believing and expecting that they control behavior. We need to understand that this is not possible. We in law enforcement control nothing. But we CAN manage anything. We should not forget the 9 principles of Sir Robert Peel, the founder of modern Policing from his proposal in the 1800’s, but especially his last principle, which is “To recognize always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and NOT the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them”. Police Action doe NOT equal police efficiency. Increased policing does NOT help this problem of drug use. Imagine if our system of crime control were referred to as “crime management”! Imagine if our drug control policy were referred to as “Drug management policy”. 6 The word “control” suggests to me that one can turn this off or make it stop, That is the true action of the word control. The word “control” suggests that until we get to zero – we can’t stop what we are doing, no matter how ineffective it is because ~ well, we think are in control! Imagine if we replaced the term “Fight” Drug addiction with “understand” Drug addiction. How would that reshape our National response? As individuals, when we try to solve this problem, we MUST understand that our frame of reference is different than that of an addict. We cannot be critical of addiction when we then go home to a warm house, a loving family, a paycheck, a bright future and certainly having to endure only minimal physical or emotional pain. A person who has none of these OR anyone who suffers from physical or emotional pain will seek to ease that pain, especially if there is no hope for a future. Our dosage remedy to ease our physical or emotional pain will be proportionate to our perceived suffering (repeat). So how big is this issue of illegal drug use? Do we think we know? 2.1 Million people behind bars with 6.6 Million people in the correctional system.
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