Skip to main content

I wish there was a way to make this work

In Thursday's edition of the P-G, there was this article about a former borough manager who had stolen money from Braddock, a financially strapped community just outside the city limits. This woman has been repaying her debt very little by little (in about 1.5 years' time, she has paid $30 out of the $170k) because she has had trouble finding suitable employment, thanks to her felony conviction. That dilemma was quite timely for me as just over a week ago I posted a blog about giving people (criminals) second chances. In that post, I wondered if someone had redeemed himself, should he get another chance? And I had questioned, mostly seriously, if someone could not go on to get a job after prison, then what was the point of getting out of prison.

But this woman's owing so much and paying so little was not what really struck a cord with me. Rather it was this sentence: "If she can't pay Braddock back in dollars, she should pay it in community service," Mr. Fetterman said.

Mayor John Fetterman has been a champion for Braddock, as far as I can tell from what I have read in the papers and have seen on the local news. He believes in the community and wants to make it better. And I applaud his idea. Prisons are overcrowded. And they are often dangerous, soul-crushing hellholes that cost taxpayers a lot of money. People who have not committed heinous crimes and who are not a danger to others probably should not be there. Plus if one is in prison, one cannot make restitution very easily. And in many cases, people who have to make restitution often can't or never do. So having those people help make the community better seems like a reasonable solution.

Unfortunately, if memory serves me correctly it apparently is something that is not easy to do. Two or three years ago, a similar proposal was brought up by the county council. At the time, I called my county councilman to let him know that having first-time DUI offenders (I believe that is who it was) picking up litter was a great idea, and he should do whatever he can to make this happen. But, alas, my councilman told me that there were cost issues that made this community service option a bit thorny. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I seem to recall it had something to do with needing people to oversee the trash gatherers, which would be an expense, and there was probably something about needing insurance on these people. 

That is so unfortunate. In my world, you would trust these people to do the clean-up or some similar service because the threat of prison or an exorbitant fine should be a pretty good deterrent against not doing the work. But what do I know?
What I do know is I feel strongly enough about this issue to have sent a follow-up email to my councilman. I will have to see what, if anything, happens (or has happened already).

What do you think? Anyone with me? Good idea or bad? Does the cost (depending on what it is) outweigh the benefits? Sometime the optimist in me can't help thinking it will all just work out.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a

Melancholy and Gratitude

 A few days ago, I decided to do gratitude posts on FB. I was good the first two days. Day 3 I got a little snarky as I posted about "doing the right thing" in regards to Covid. The Covid cases in Allegheny County have been on the rise. For a while, we had daily counts between 50 and 100. After July 4, we saw a spike for a few weeks, and then cases were back below 100. Unfortunately, other than one "low" day this week, where "only" 288 cases were reported, we have had between 500 and 620 daily cases. Fortunately, only a few people have died this week. But of course, any death is too many. I started to keep track of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on 6/12/20. On that day, since 3/12, Allegheny County had had 2,034 cases, 352 people had been hospitalized, and 172 people had died. On 11/19/20, the county has seen a total of 22,042 cases, 1,724 people have been hospitalized, and 465 people have died from Covid since 3/12. In just over 8 months, we have had

Hug your loved ones!

I hate to say that I am still working through my grief. I mean, in some ways I can imagine I will always be grieving. But I feel pretty confident it will get easier, and I will cry less and less. But, yeah, I guess I am still working through it. Yesterday, a thought occurred to me: I had not hugged my dad since the end of February, and that will now be the last time I ever did. I did not see him for almost three months because of COVID, and then at the end of May, he started his series of hospital visits with skilled nursing stints in between. I was always afraid to hug him then. What if I gave him COVID? And yet when my dad had really bad ICU delirium during a few different hospital stays, I fed him. If I could do that, why not hug him? So I cried a bit last night thinking about that. I am not necessarily a big hugger; I used to hate it, and then probably before Jordan was born, I got back to doing it again. Before COVID, I hugged my friends goodbye (and sometimes hello). I always wou