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Thank you

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Just in case you need this...

CURRENT EVENT DIRECTIONS:

ABOVE CLASSES: Write two detailed paragraphs (5-6 sentences) after reading the articles provided.

CLASS COLOR, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME (10 points)

(1) Your first paragraph will be a response to the forum using evidence to support your thoughts. (20 points)

(2) Cite from the article blending your quote into your paragraph well. HINT:  Cite in the beginning of the paragraph to blend the citation. (20 points)

(3) Your second paragraph will be the counterclaim (argument) why others may feel differently from you.  (20 points)

(4) Cite from the article again supporting your counterclaim. Remember to blend your quote. (20 points)

.....ALL QUOTES MUST IN BOLD PRINT....(10 points)

8TH GRADE “AT”  LEVEL STUDENTS:

CLASS COLOR, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME (10 points)

(1) Write one detailed paragraph a (7-8 sentences) after reading the articles provided.  Your paragraph will be a response to the forum using evidence to support your thoughts. (40 points)

(2) Cite from the article blending your quote into your paragraph well. HINT:  Cite in the beginning of the paragraph to blend the citation in the paragraph.  (40 points)

.....ALL QUOTES MUST BE IN BOLD PRINT....(10 points)

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Solutions for Overuse of Jails Can Have Unintended Consequences

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Solutions for Overuse of Jails Can Have Unintended Consequences

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Violating a condition of pretrial release may be treated more seriously than the initial charge.

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Make Justice Jails' Prime Purpose

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Jails have become the easy solution for the problems of addiction, poverty, mental illness, rather than instruments of justice.

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Reducing Inmates Can Reduce Crime

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Incarceration can lead to more incarceration. Courts must use actuarial risk assessments to determine who should be released pretrial.

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Local Jails Are an Important Part of the Penal System

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Some local jails in this country are mismanaged, to be sure. Media reports of Rikers Island actually recruiting gang members with criminal records to be guards are deplorable. Those who have engaged in such mismanagement need to be fired, and competent administrators need to be hired in their place.

At the low end are the alternatives to incarceration, at the upper end is state prison, and county jail is in the crucial middle.

Predictably, though, America's left-leaning advocacy organizations and think tanks are attempting to leverage this scandal to promote their pet panacea. Indeed, their cure for every ailment is to put more prisoners back on the street.

The claim is not a new one. In 2000, Rand Corporation released a study of Los Angeles County Jail prompted by concerns of overcrowding and the hope that it could be relieved by releasing inmates who did not need to be there. The answer, in a nutshell, is that the people in the county jail really did need to be there, and the ones who were good candidates for alternative sanctions were already on them.

Local jails occupy an important place in the range of sanctions available in our penal system. At the low end are the alternatives to incarceration, at the upper end is state prison, and county jail is in the crucial middle. These parts do not operate independently. They depend on each other.

Getting addicts into treatment is much touted as an alternative. Wonderful. How do you keep them in treatment? Some have their act together sufficiently to stay voluntarily, but those are the ones who had the best chance of making it without treatment. For the tougher cases, jail needs to be a realistic backup sanction. Electronic monitoring sounds good, but what if there is no penalty for cutting off the monitor? Where the jails are so lacking in capacity that they have revolving doors for all but the very worst offenders, the alternative sanctions become toothless and lose their effectiveness.

We are already seeing the results in California. The State Legislature, playing its favorite trick, "solved" its state prison overcrowding problem by pushing it on the counties. The "realignment" program pushed inmates who would have been in prison into already overcrowded jails instead, hydraulically pushing many of the criminals who would have been in jail onto the street. Not surprisingly, California has not shared at all in the nation's drop in property crime since 2011. Auto theft, the category most directly affected, is up alarmingly relative to the rest of the country.

As the satirist H.L. Mencken said, for every problem there is a solution: neat, simple and wrong. The idea that we can save money and solve our overcrowding problem by simply releasing prisoners and do so without endangering law-abiding people is incredibly tempting, and many well-meaning people have fallen for it. It is an illusion, and a dangerous one.

Join Opinion on Facebook and follow updates on twitter.com/roomfordebate.

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Local Jails Are an Important Part of the Penal System

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Some local jails in this country are mismanaged, to be sure. Media reports of Rikers Island actually recruiting gang members with criminal records to be guards are deplorable. Those who have engaged in such mismanagement need to be fired, and competent administrators need to be hired in their place.

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Stop the Mentally Ill in Jails

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Divert those with mental health problems from jail, where their conditions are worsened by abuse, medical neglect and solitary confinement.

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Keep Out of Jail Those Who DOn't Need to Be Locked Up

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Keep Out of Jail Those Who Don't Need to Be Locked Up

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Jail is now for those who can't afford bail. Programs can provide services to end unnecessary jail stays and strengthen public safety.