RE “CRIME bill critics call for more analysis: Key lawmakers stand fast on 3-strikes penalty’’ (Metro, Jan. 25): I am a middle-class, middle-aged mom from the predominantly white suburbs. I stand with the black community in demanding that three-strikes legislation be removed from the “habitual offenders’’ bill, and that final legislation include sentencing reform.
The heartbreaking injustices of violent crime are not answered or ameliorated by creating, or exacerbating, injustices in the prison system.
People of color are sentenced more harshly than whites. The issue before the conference committee in the Legislature is a matter of justice and morality. It is also a matter of fact and reason.
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To be really tough on crime, we need tools that work. Pretending to fix a problem with feel-good window dressing is not only bad policy, but it leaves real problems unaddressed.
Massachusetts prisons, parole, and sentencing are in dire need of a critical eye and sweeping reforms. But three-strikes is failed policy.
One-size-fits-all sentencing does not work. Why are we still talking about it?
Harmony Wu