Retired Judge William Ray Price stresses importance of seeking alternatives to prison
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September 20, 2012
Missouri: After retiring from the Missouri Supreme Court last month, Justice William Ray Price wanted to convey the importance of alternative justice. Throughout Price's career he has supported alternatives to prison, especially Missouri’s drug courts.[1] For non-violent offenders the drug court implements a drug treatment program in place of a prison sentence with the goal of reintroducing the offender into the community.[2]
Justice Price in a interview with St. Louis Public Radio on September 4, 2012
| “ | When we put people in jail it costs us an extraordinary amount of money and they generally don’t get better just for being in jail. A better alternative is to save money not putting them in jail and give them the type of rehabilitation programs, drug, and alcohol treatment they need to return as productive members of society. Drug courts have shown that at a far lower cost we can have a far better result; that is less people that get in trouble again.[1][3] | ” |
Excerpts from Justice Price's State of the Judiciary addresses
| “ | February 3, 2010: For years we have waged a “war on drugs,” enacted “three strikes and you’re out” sentencing laws, and “thrown away the key” to be tough on crime. What we did not do was check to see how much it costs, or whether we were winning or losing. In fact, it has cost us billions of dollars and we have just as much crime now as we did when we started. We have created a bottleneck by arresting far more people than we can handle down through the rest of the system.[4]
February 9, 2011: From the 1980s, in Missouri and across the nation, we attempted to incarcerate our way out of crime and illegal drug use. We thought just putting people in prison would make them better or scare them straight. We spent billions of dollars and it did not work. We were tough on crime, but we were not smart on crime.[5][3] |
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See also
- News: Alternative justice in Pennington County, South Dakota, March 15, 2012
- Restorative Justice
- Circle Peacemaking
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://kbia.org, "Judge William Ray Price, Jr. on issues facing Mo. courts as he steps away," September 4, 2012
- ↑ Missouri Drug Court home page
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Supreme Court of Missouri, "Chief justice delivers 2010 State of the Judiciary address," February 3, 2010
- ↑ Supreme Court of Missouri, "Chief justice delivers 2011 State of the Judiciary address," February 9, 2010
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