But that's probably why this self-styled housewife should stick to writing about domestic issues rather than legal or political ones. If she'd managed to talk to anyone involved in the criminal justice system, including even the one person she quotes in the piece, she'd realize that the problem isn't allowing SJO out of prison nor is the issue that she gets to go home to Minnesota, the problem is others don't get those benefits. And the solution? Not to burn precious space on the TImes Op-Ed page whining about Olsen's crime, but rather to advocate for more liberal parole rules everywhere.
How about a little note about how overcrowded California prisons are already stuffed full of parole violators sent back only on "technical specs"?
How about a nice piece about the dangers of mass incarceration or the absurd sentences meted out to those self same folks who have committed lesser crimes? Flanigan has made a career out of shaming working women and glorifying home-makers.
Time to make some donuts.
my controversial book about a day in my life as Public Defender in the South Bronx is finally available for Kindle and Ipad.
1 comment:
It seems to me that Ms. Flanagan misses the issue just as you say. President Eisenhower warned us about the military/industrial complex before he left office. What we should pay attnetion to is the prison/industrial complex. You comment on the overcrowding in California -- it is no accidnet, given that the single largest PAC in the state is a corrections officer PAC, and that they lobby for more mandatory minumums -- in other words full employment. Your earlier post about the judges taking money to incarcerate is a drmatic example of just this problem.
Andrea Lyon
http://www.andrealyon.com/
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