After a typical weekend of shootings, Chicago officials explain that the crisis stems from too many guns and not enough punishment, and that to address these problems, legislators need to pass stricter gun laws and mandate longer mandatory prison penalties. This explanation not only confuses symptoms with causes, but it also leads legislators to double-down on failed and expensive policies. The threat of longer prison penalties is not an effective deterrent — it will only increase the time people serve in our already overcrowded $1.3 billion prison system, spending money we don’t have on a response to crime that doesn’t work. To understand the true causes of Chicago’s crisis, the committee should engage people who live and work in the communities that are most affected by gun violence. They should talk to someone like Father David Kelly. For more than 30 years, he’s worked with young people in the deep end of Cook County’s justice system. And since 2000, he’s run Precious Blood Ministries, a kind of safe haven for youth in Chicago’s Back of the Yards, one of the city’s most violent and impoverished neighborhoods. - John Maki, Executive Director, John Howard Association of Illinois - Woods Fund Chicago Grantee Partner
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 17:07:21 +0000
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