His name isn't Simon, but it should be. Stewart J. Greenleaf is a Pennsylvania politician. In fact, he's a state senator and about as sharp as mashed potatoes.
Greenleaf is certainly not remarkable or unusual. He's just your garden variety Republican. His attitude toward prisoners and prisons might be characterized as primitive. Well, lets be honest, his approach to "corrections" is callous, simplistic, ineffective, long outmoded and vindictive.
It's not fair to call him a Neanderthal. Reliable evidence indicates that the Neanderthal were pretty nice fellows for troglodytes.
This fellow is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That committee controls prison legislation as well as judges and everything that is laughingly called "just-up" in Pennsylvania.
Stewart's stewardship of "corrections'" legislation will guarantee that crimes become far worse and that "criminals" become far more dangerous.
But first, a breath of truth: YOU ARE NOT IN DANGER. The supposed boom in crime is a lie. It's all hype being pumped by the media (particularly local television) and politicians. They have you scared of phantoms.
The crime rate has never been so low when it is taken as the number of violent crimes per adult man. The truth is, our society is more tranquil now than it has ever been. We just have a LOT more people and the sensational media (like the imaginative Harrisburg Patriot News) make sure we know about every mischief.
Prisoners are not nearly as dangerous to "public safety" as the politicians are. Watch that bunch!
But, consider Stewart's effect on your safety. His whole theory is typically republican: antiquated. Any prison sentence which is longer than 2 years does more harm than good. After 2 years of imprisonment men get bitter, not better. They develop anger and hostility toward the society. The longer they rot in prison,the more hostile they become. The more hostile a man is the more likely he is to commit more crimes and far worse crimes; crimes which express his anger.
Rape, robbery and murder are terrible crimes, but, if the punishment for rape or robbery is the same as for murder, then you can bet that the rape victim and the robbery victim are going to be murdered. It's not in any offender's self interest to leave a witness to his rape or robbery.
A punishment should not only fit the crime, but it should fit the society. Greenleaf and his fellow-travelers are going to get a lot of people killed.
There is another thing which is almost as bad: what does the Simple-Simon mentality say about us as a people? As a civilized society? Do you look back on the witch hunts or the Inquisition as an enlightened age?
Do you look back at the Nazi registering of homosexuals and Jews as a civilized practice? But, compare the so-called Megan's Law. Won't it be great when the politicians can make the ex-sex-offender wear an identifying patch and a tattoo?
Being a politician, Simple-Simon made hay on Robert Simon. If you've forgotten, Robert Simon is the guy they call "Mudman." While on parole, he was accused of shooting a cop. What the cop did to provoke the shooting is not exactly clear.
Though the supposed shooting didn't even occur in Pennsylvania it proved to be a great opportunity for the witch hunters. Evil was at work! .0000082% of Pennsylvanians were shooting those wonderful police officers. Action would have to be taken!
We all know the rest. Instead of having effective laws which will benefit the society, we have the Stewart J. Greenleaf and Company laws: ineffective and vicious, but simple...simply bad!
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