St. Louis crime - Where were the public defenders?
Saturday my Leadership St. Louis class looked at crime in St. Louis. In my case this examination had already begun with my 3rd District ride along. We toured the City Justice Center (read that as jail) and heard presentations by a university professor, women who had experienced incarceration, prosecutors from St. Louis and the Eastern district of Missouri, a judge and the police chiefs of St. Louis city and county. An impressive lineup.
What I learned:
- The police have a difficult job - I am certainly pleased that there are people willing and able to do this dangerous and important job - as they try and get the bad guys off of the streets.
- Prosecutors take a look at the cases brought to them by the police and decide which of those individuals to try. They are proud of their work in keeping bad guys of the streets.
- The judge’s presentation helped us think about balancing individual needs and community retribution.
But the emphasis seemed to be on getting bad guys off of the street. We did not hear from any public defenders or defense attorneys. We did not hear from any criminal justice watchdog groups. What story would they have told? What would we have seen by looking at the system from the other side? I suspect something quite different.
As a nation we have the highest incarceration rate in the world - 1 out of every 100 American adults is behind bars. For blacks the rate is 1 out of every 15. Clearly this "law and order" focus - let’s lock ‘em up to keep ‘em off of the street - is not working. We need a different way.