There are definitely people like James Bennett still working, even today, in our carceral system--I have known them--but the system reeeeaaallly makes it hard.
I thought you would know them. I am sorry it is still so hard.
All because society really doesn't care two hoots about this population, would like to not acknowledge its existence, and consequently doesn't allocate funds for it.
Bennett in the '30's was pointing out that in terms of strict economy, it is monetarily more efficient to fund rehabilitation programs than to keep people locked up! Which I am sure means that he wasn't the first to notice, but either way it is not an argument we should be having a hundred years later. The other thing this conversation makes me think about is the saga of Boston's Long Island Bridge, which would have been rebuilt by now—along with the addiction recovery campus it should lead to—if not for a holotype of not-in-our-back-yardism. Instead we have the crisis at Mass and Cass. I don't understand why it frightens some people so much if some other people aren't getting enough hurt.
.... uh, that got dark. On a lighter note, my text-and-supertext remark was inspired by the navy recruiter in this Simpsons sketch talking about the three levels of messaging.
It's what it is. But I'd never seen that Simpsons sketch and it's delightful. "Hey, you! Join the Navy!"
no subject
I thought you would know them. I am sorry it is still so hard.
All because society really doesn't care two hoots about this population, would like to not acknowledge its existence, and consequently doesn't allocate funds for it.
Bennett in the '30's was pointing out that in terms of strict economy, it is monetarily more efficient to fund rehabilitation programs than to keep people locked up! Which I am sure means that he wasn't the first to notice, but either way it is not an argument we should be having a hundred years later. The other thing this conversation makes me think about is the saga of Boston's Long Island Bridge, which would have been rebuilt by now—along with the addiction recovery campus it should lead to—if not for a holotype of not-in-our-back-yardism. Instead we have the crisis at Mass and Cass. I don't understand why it frightens some people so much if some other people aren't getting enough hurt.
.... uh, that got dark. On a lighter note, my text-and-supertext remark was inspired by the navy recruiter in this Simpsons sketch talking about the three levels of messaging.
It's what it is. But I'd never seen that Simpsons sketch and it's delightful. "Hey, you! Join the Navy!"