The Effects of Incarceration and Reentry on Community Health and Well-Being Proceedings of a Workshop (2020) / Chapter Skim
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7 The Perspective from the District Attorney's Office
7 The Perspective from the District Attorney's Office
Pages 55-60
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From page 55... ...
The final presenter of the workshop was the district attorney of P hiladelphia, Larry Krasner. Since assuming his position on January 1, 2018, several months before the workshop, Krasner had been working on the "twin evils of mass incarceration and mass supervision" -- and there is "much to be done," he said.
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From page 56... ...
Past district attorneys have used their positions to further their careers by being tough on crime. Aided by journalism that profits from sensational stories that are not representative of an overall decline in crime, politicians have built jail cells to get votes while simultaneously disenfranchising the people being put in prison.
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From page 57... ...
DIVERSION PROGRAMS Krasner discussed a system known as restorative justice that has shown promising results. Under an organization called Impact Justice in Oakland, California, young people who have committed fairly serious crimes, such as unoccupied burglaries at homes, are selected at random and then meet with either the victim or representative of the victim.
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From page 58... ...
The mayor has supported community user engagement sites, reductions in jail populations, and changing marijuana possession from a misdemeanor offense to a summary citation -- "We definitely have an ally in the mayor's office." This level of support makes possible such activities as developing metrics regarding public safety, diverting cases at the front end of incarceration, and supporting reentry at the back end. The police are part of the solution, too, Krasner said.
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From page 59... ...
BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES Politics remain an issue in making such changes, Krasner observed. Crime has been declining nationally since 1992, but people in surveys consistently report that they think crime is increasing, and media depictions can make such attitudes worse.
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