[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]Second in a series

Re “Lacey for Mayor”

Before the powerfully astute Jackie Lacey – senior chief deputy D.A. for Los Angeles County, (not the city, as incorrectly labeled below) and candidate to be the next County D.A. – could spread her calming, disciplined, common-sense solutions at a community event, here is the propeller-spinning headwind she walked into last Friday:

[img]1563|left|Jackie Lacey||no_popup[/img]Dr. Anthony A. Samad, the charismatic, pot-stirring, occasional bomb-throwing chief of The Urban Issues Breakfast Forum, employed a taste of hyperbole to rev up the crowd at Friday’s program. If Dr. Samad had resisted the temptation to muscle-flex, as Ms. Lacey classily did, it would have been a flawless outing.

“We thought it was most appropriate to bring (Jackie Lacey) as the Chief Deputy District Attorney in the (sic) City of Los Angeles, a community that is most impacted by the most controversial issue that any state has ever faced. And nobody in our community is talking about it, prison realignment.

“California is the biggest jailer in the country that is the biggest jailer in the world.”

The crowd buzzed as Dr. Samad paused.

Digesting Lofty Numbers

“America has 2.2 million people in prison. No other country, no communist country, no socialist country, no dictator, no other country uses incarceration as a form of social control like the United States of America.

“California has over 180,000 people in jail. Yet the state’s prison system only was built for 88,000. Almost a hundred thousand people over the limit.

“A federal court earlier this year mandated that California reduce its prison population by at least 30,000 by June of 2013.

“What they have been doing is putting low-level offenders back into the county jails. The county jails are now overpopulated, if you have been reading about the conflicts taking place in the county jails.

“Moreover, we still have a criminal justice system that cranks out prosecutions like clockwork.

Destination Is Clouded

“Where do these offenders go? When they come out, where do they go? Los Angeles County is slated to have 13,000 offenders come back into this community this year.

“Nobody ever talks about where people who are coming back into the community go. They never talk about whether they are low-level offenders or high-level offenders.

“They never talk about the risks that are posed to communities. They never talk about alternatives to incarceration to make society, and those who offend society, rehabilitate themselves and become productive citizens.

“And so the black and Latino communities are disproportionately impacted by this problem that nobody wants to talk about.

“All we do is watch the 11 o’clock News, and we see somebody who has been assaulted or offended again, most likely by someone who has recently come out, is on probation or on parole, and doesn’t have an alternative to returning to a life with dignity, a life they once knew.

“We need to talk to people who really understand the complexity of the problem,” Dr. Samad said.

“If they plan on going into public service, we need to understand what they plan to do to offer a solution as to the complex dynamics.”

Directly, he introduced the understated Ms. Lacey who made a huge hurricane of an impression.

(To be continued)