[420 Girl]

Seeking response to Governor Rell's budget proposal, a television news reporter surveyed businesses near the courthouse in Meriden, which the governor would close, and found a bail bondsman worrying that he might have to close his office too. Criminal justice apparently isn't just overhead expense for society; it's economic development. Maybe Connecticut should try putting everybody in jail.

Actually, one sign of whether state government is getting serious about saving money will be whether it is ready to put fewer people in jail. That question will be answered in part by the fate of legislation proposed by two New Haven Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney and the Senate chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Toni N. Harp, to reduce the criminal penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana. While any possession now carries liability for a year in prison and a $1,000 fine, the senators would make minor possession punishable only by a small fine payable by ticket.

Criminal justice in Connecticut is a multi-billion-dollar operation consisting mainly of chasing dopeheads around to enforce a prohibition that works even worse than the alcohol prohibition of the 1920s did. That is, it works only as a lavish employment program for police, prosecutors, defense lawyers, prison guards, parole and probation officers, and judges. But like nearly everything else in state government, this policy is never audited for results, never evaluated against standards of success and failure. It is simply an unthinking presumption that can be doubted only in the most timid way. At least the Looney-Harp bill implicitly asks how much drug criminalization Connecticut can afford. Less law means less crime.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...ess-crime.html