Two recent articles from the San Antonio Current and Storyleak, here and here, remind me of a conversation I had a few months ago with a local felony Assistant District Attorney.
The prosecutor expressed his frustration to me that the probation department was referring all probationers to in-patient drug abuse facilities, whether the probationer had a history of substance abuse or not. The Director of the Probation Department told the ADA that they "had to fill beds or they (the county) would lose their contract." In other words, people who had never used drugs in their lives were being sent to prison-like drug treatment facilities, so that the County could make money. The probation officer's paycheck relies on how many people that officer can convince the Judge to incarcerate. This was certainly no revelation to me, but I was surprised by the Assistant DA's candor with me and that even he, a government bureaucrat, was frustrated with the criminal justice bureaucracy. Unfortunately, Assistant DA's like him are few and far between. There are certainly honorable peace officers, prosecutors, and probation officers who truly believe in achieving justice and serving the public. However, the vast majority of government workers in the criminal justice system are career bureaucrats. It is time "we the people" stopped accepting as the norm: the law enforcement officer who feels the need to harass a housewife for not wearing her seatbelt; the prosecutor who wants to put an old man in a cage for possessing a non-government approved plant; or the probation officer who wants to make sure they get they get paid, even if it means sending an innocent person to prison. The bureaucrat's typical cop-out responses: "I'm just doing my job," "I didn't write the laws, I just enforce them," or "that's not my problem." If we begin shunning and calling out the ones "just doing their jobs," then the sooner the public servants can rise to the top.
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AuthorDefending your rights, fighting injustice, and my views on crime and politics. Archives
January 2015
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