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An Enlightented Crime Policy: The Best Jail is an Empty One

By Jeralyn

With all the fear-mongering that politicians engage in during election years, backed by many in law enforcement, particularly those of the broken windows school who think the key lies in busting and getting petty offenders off the street, it's refreshing to report on a place where a different mindset prevails , resulting in both a low crime rate and a near empty jail.

The place: Aspen, Colorado. The Sheriff: Bob Braudis. Others going along with the program of not making it a policy to lock up low-level offenders: the judges, the prosecutors and the Jail Administrator.

On Thursday there were just three full-time inmates and five people on work release in a facility that can hold as many as 30....Jail administrator Don Bird, however, chalks up the low numbers to what he called an “enlightened system of justice” in the upper valley. From law enforcement on the street, to the district attorney, courts and the jail, there is communication and a common goal of rehabilitation, not just human warehousing and punishment, he said.

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Bird, who goes to regular conventions of the American Jail Association, said Pitkin County’s situation is unique. “Everybody’s bursting at the seams except us,” he said.

The philosophy behind it:"Treating the causes of an inmate problems, not just punishing the symptoms" and "an empty jail is a perfect jail."

Like Bird, Braudis chalks up low inmate numbers to a different mentality of law enforcement. Jails should exist only to separate predators from their prey.

The mentality:

Thanks to the upvalley district attorney’s office and the courts, nonviolent criminals and misdemeanor offenders are able to bond out on charges where, in other parts of the state, they might be stuck behind bars in what he called “the most punitive criminal justice system in U.S. history.”

Braudis and others in law enforcement work with judges to ensure a “flexible and fair” bond level that does not simply punish the poor, he said.

“I don’t want a guy to spend days or weeks in jail because he doesn’t have $100,” Braudis said. He believes in legislative forms that would end mandatory minimums that limit a judge’s ability to find creative solutions for nonviolent offenders.

Another policy difference: treating inmates with respect.

Pitkin County’s jail is designed to take the stress off of inmates, Braudis said. Instead of just “tiers and catwalks,” the facility more often sees Bird and inmates sitting down to lunch.

“If you treat someone like an animal, you release an animal,” Braudis said, adding that the jail’s mission is to return people in as good condition, or better physically and mentally, to the community as they were before. “Other than their freedom, an inmate in my jail should be deprived of nothing else,” Braudis said.

Braudis and Byrd say many of their inmates have cleaned up, gotten of drugs, and found themselves while in their facility.

“We don’t see bad guys in here; we see guys who’ve made bad choices and face consequences for what they did,” Bird said.

What a difference being smart about crime, instead of just tough on crime, can make.

Braudis, Colorado's favorite Sheriff, has been Sheriff of Pitkin County since 1986. I wrote more about him here, making one of TalkLeft's only requests to readers to contribute to a political campaign. His law enforcement experience is here (pdf.)

As Jimmy Ibbotson sang about him during his last re-election campaign, "An officer of peace, his county rocks."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 18, 2008 (boomark / email).