You’d be hard pushed to deny that there’s an issue with America’s justice system. Prisons are overloaded with young, petty, minority offenders and it’s costing us a lot of money. John Oliver has made a few videos now highlighting various issues within the system:
I say this to say that there is at least one prosecutor who recognises these issues and is trying to do something about it. Instead of putting people in jail for petty crimes, he’s figuring out why they’re committing these petty crimes and helping ameliorate that instead. It saves the taxpayer money and turns these people from guests of the state to contributing members of society. Watch below to hear what Adam Foss is doing in Boston and how it’s turning things around.
After all, as Adam reminds us, most of us have turned out alright despite the fact that we may have drunk before the legal age, stolen something or taken illegal drugs without having spent a single minute in jail for it. Jail doesn’t make decent citizens out of people because it fails to recognise the problem behind the issue.
