A renewed call to fund services, not jails

Bryan L. Sykes, associate professor of criminology, law and society, comments on the economic slowdown and the national dialogue about money in the Los Angeles Times.

He said he believes now is the time to redistribute funds away from the criminal justice system and toward education, social work, public health and job training programs. That way, he said, when the economy rebounds, people returning from prison or jail, as well as anybody with an older record, will have more skills needed to market themselves and fully reintegrate into society.

“It’s time to do something new,” he said. “This is the moment to invest in people and not in jails and other sorts of models of social control that we have been following for the last 30, 40, 50 years.”

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