Thursday, May 12, 2016

The Criminals? It Seems We Should Prepare to Keep Them

   Try this on for a problem: Almost 20,000 immigrants convicted of crimes were released to our streets in budget year 2015. They were targeted for deportation. How many of them failed to get deported because their home countries wouldn't take them back, I don't know, but the news report leads me to believe it was a sizable portion of them, maybe all.
   And, that makes sense. Why would a country want to take in known criminals? And, if the crimes were committed on our soil, why should they?
    Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz believes the solution is simple: If the home countries don't take them back, then reduce the number of visas allowed for those countries. Maybe that will work. Maybe it won't. My thought is, your policy shouldn't be dependent on whether the other country will respond the way you want it to. And, I wonder if such diplomacy by intimidation is what we ought to be about, anyway. Seems to me, we should say, We've both got a problem. You don't want them, and we don't want them. What shall we do? and work it out with them, not force our way on them by threatening them.
   One idea is to have the convictions from the U.S. be recognized in the other countries and imprison them there, if the other countries would agree to that. But, the other countries might ask that we foot the prison bills, even though the criminals are back in their home countries. I don't know that I like paying for their incarcerations if they are filled outside the U.S.
   Now, even if we do send them back home for their prison sentences, that would only be a partial solution. Other countries would still have the option of rejecting the prisoners. As I said, our policy should not be dependent on what the other countries will do.
   So, it would seem we should be prepared to keep them.
   That's not an enjoyable thought. It is one, though, that underscores the need for a better prison system, one that rehabilitates as many as possible, and one that pays its own way as much as possible. Prisoners should work at least enough to pay for the expense of incarcerating them.
   Before you criticize me for saying we should prepare to keep these criminals, consider that we already are keeping them. I'm only suggesting we should have a plan in place for dealing with them. To me, part of that plan should be successful rehabilitation and financial responsibility.

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