Chris Powell's column attacking proposals for improving criminal justice in Connecticut was long on political propaganda and short on sensible solutions ("Even 1,000 felonies won't require life term," Jan. 14). Instead of ideas for how to accommodate a growing prison population while assuring the public's safety and security, he offered little more than empty, anti-public services ideology.
Everyone agrees on longer sentences for violent offenders. But Mr. Powell falsely characterizes the response to the tragedy in Cheshire as a choice between accepting the "premise that social work can solve everything" and adopting the model of prisons as merely warehouses for the incarcerated.
The reality is that due to economics, politics and the Constitution, most inmates will be released sometime. As a state school teacher in York Correctional Institution, I believe the public expects us do our best to prevent inmates from coming out of prison worse than when they went in.
That's why my fellow Department of Correction (DOC) education professionals in CESA/SEIU (the Connecticut state employees union), Local 2001, have been urging lawmakers to invest in our institutions' educational and vocational work force.
What our criminal justice system needs is to shift to a transitional model focused on results-based outcomes. Assessing the achievement of educational and vocational benchmarks before making the critical decision to return an inmate to the community is just one of many benefits of such a shift.
This reform will require a comprehensive approach that brings criminal justice agencies and community transitional-service providers together to achieve common goals. For example, DOC educators must be empowered to communicate directly with neighborhood-level counselors who will deal with inmates after their release.
Opinion makers like Chris Powell must recognize that criminal justice reform is not about bricks and mortar; it's about people who will make it work more efficiently and competently.
Roland Bishop
Niantic
Editor's note: The writer is also steward for CSEA/SEIU Local 2001.