Leonard Campanello deserves even more praise for instituting a program that stands the test of time. So many times a worthwhile program ceases to function well once their leader is no longer a participant. I'm glad his vision is secure.
DA Blodgett is being a toad. “That amounts to a promise of amnesty, if you will, and they don’t have the legal authority to grant amnesty...”
What the police are doing isn't "granting amnesty." What the police are doing is using their discretion to not arrest the individual. The police do, indeed, have the authority to use their discretion in deciding who to arrest and who to not arrest.
In this case, justice is better served by not arresting the junkie for possession and instead sending them off to treatment, rather than jail.
I hope DA Blodgett reinterprets his stance on this question. If a citizen turns in a dangerous substance, thus keeping it off the streets and being a danger to others, that person should not fear arrest.
If, at the same time, that person expresses a desire to get on the right side of the law, to seek treatment for a disease from which he/she suffers, it has been clearly shown that everyone benefits; the person, the public, the police. It's only the jailers who might lose their jobs.
But wait! Sheriff Kevin Coppinger who runs the jails in Blodgett's Essex County, has expressed profound support for the PAARI program. In the last election, only candidate Ed O'Reilly was more fulsome in his praise. What if we had "privatized" the jails. Would those profit-seekers be seeking to reduce their populations? Not likely.
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What the police are doing isn't "granting amnesty." What the police are doing is using their discretion to not arrest the individual. The police do, indeed, have the authority to use their discretion in deciding who to arrest and who to not arrest.
In this case, justice is better served by not arresting the junkie for possession and instead sending them off to treatment, rather than jail.
If, at the same time, that person expresses a desire to get on the right side of the law, to seek treatment for a disease from which he/she suffers, it has been clearly shown that everyone benefits; the person, the public, the police. It's only the jailers who might lose their jobs.
But wait! Sheriff Kevin Coppinger who runs the jails in Blodgett's Essex County, has expressed profound support for the PAARI program. In the last election, only candidate Ed O'Reilly was more fulsome in his praise. What if we had "privatized" the jails. Would those profit-seekers be seeking to reduce their populations? Not likely.