Niche Justice...Your thoughts

Last week in The Chronicle they had an article about Niche Justice I thought was very interesting.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A985573

America has more prisons and people incarcerated than anywhere else in the world. I didn't read the article in it's entirety, but I really like the idea of this. I am sure it is full of flaws, but maybe we are on to something here?

Interesting article. Many of our laws give more severe penalties for lesser crimes. Courts such as the ones in the article will alleviate the need for a "casual" offender to be categorized with major felons. While sounding great in practice, I sincerely hope that in real application it will work.

I agree that judges don't make good social workers. I have no idea how much psychology a judge is required to take, but it makes sense to me that they should understand the root of the problem.

Helping the vets should be a top priority, after all, w/o them we would not be the free country we are and might be speaking German, Japanese, or who knows what else language now. I don't think a vet who gets a DWI 30 years after the war and claims PTSD as his defense should be treated better than a lady who gets a DWI and claims she too has PTSD because she was abused as a young girl. Equal justice BUT the vets should be entitled to free shrinks and other mental services and I think there are special programs for vets. The prisons are overcrowded because we lock up too many misdemeanor folks and we are loaded up with illegal aliens in prisons and a slew of other reasons...

I think the answer is in the DA's offices around the country and there is no reason to load the prisons up for BS crimes many of them victimless crimes, we need to lock up the animals, not the average guy/girl who makes a mistake....

California had a good proposal to avoid overcrowding and save some $$$'s, build prisons in MX and start sending the illegals who crowd our prisons up back there, we pay for most of it but costs are much less. Complete the border fence, it has proven effective in San Diego especially in reducing crime and arrests of illegals, send them back to MX and nationwide stop prosecuting bullshit misdemeanor offenses. Legalize ( or decriminalize) prostitution and tax it and legalize and tax certain items Americans use and start making money off some of these things that we currently lock up folks for and spend 10's of thousands per month to house and feed.

The vets are not the reason we are over crowded at all, but they do deserve some kind of special treatment so they can avoid trouble. Too many vets are forgotten too soon after return. But these illegals have to go. My tax dollars I am about to get fucked with in two weeks should go to help vets, educate kids in schools because education battles crime....instead some guy is probably crossing the Rio Grande now, will murder some innocent person, go to jail in America and we will pay for him. On top of that he will probably sue some county in TX, NM or AZ for lack of water which they have done when they suffer dehydration and die in the desert once they cross.

The justice system needs to prioritize what crimes gets charged, too many petty offense folks are crowding the prisons, many of them housed with the border jumpers in the same cells. I will add that many who do cross our borders, are good people, work, aim for a good future for their children and most who cross the border even illegally are good people, but too many still cross in vast numbers that commit crimes and not a PI or a bar fight, more like murder, rape, kidnapping and so on.

Prosecutors and judges get elected on "get tough" platforms, so overcrowded prisons are to a large extent the will of the people. Any candidate who says we have to be smarter in who and how we prosecute gets demonized as being "soft on crime" and for "coddling criminals."

The average citizen rarely cares about the criminal justice system until his/her son gets popped for a joint and then all hell breaks loose.

Ron Paul?

interesting article, britney, I can see the possibliities of a district court for veterans, yet in the study 65% of the veterans do not use the social services offered in Austin. Can you force them into treatment, or do they just become a member of the revolving door of justice where they do their time and repeat offend? I have many veterans in my family, lost a brother and two cousins in Nam, uncle and brother in law returned, so I am familiar with PTSS. I applaud anyone especially this constable for at least attempting to help. Flaws? you bet, but I hope they can iron them out. Have not heard of any other municipalities trying this, so Austin may be a spotlight.

Runswithscissors...That was the only link I posted, but they are opening 10 specialty courts in Austin. Some of them exist already.They are doing this for family violence, DWI, Drugs, etc. If you google Niche Justice you can read the entire articles. On an unrelated note- I like that guy Barry Cooper. He is an x DEA agent that has a show called Kopbusters. Interesting fellow...He recently had some dealings with Wilco after busting some dirty cops. Imagine that? He was trying to run for attorney general 2010.
Kosher- I am all for the legalization of prostitution too. They could tax it, regulate it, and lower disease. Then maybe the vice squads could concentrate on a real problem, Human Trafficking. I am not downing our men in blue; they only do what they are told, and I appreciate them. I am usually pretty private about my views, I am just excited about the idea of niche justice. I hope that if it's successful it spreads like wildfire.

I'm a lifelong teetotaler; if Prohibition worked, I'd support it.

But it doesn't, so criminalizing drug use is a mistake; with consequences we can see from the first Prohibition.

I'm not condoning recreational drug use, understand; I'm criticizing throwing people in jail for doing it.