In recent months, two prominent Connecticut officials, Superior Court Judge E. Curtissa R. Cofield and Freedom of Information attorney Henry “Hank” Pawlowski Jr., became headlines for all the wrong reasons. They were accused of breaking the law.
Cofield and Pawlowski were both arrested for drunk driving. In addition, Cofield drove into a parked police cruiser and Pawlowski was charged with a slew of other charges, including evading two motor vehicle accidents, drug possession, and resisting arrest. Both Cofield and Pawlowski added to the negative press by behaving uncharacteristically while under the influence at the time of their arrest.
In December, Cofield was accepted into an alcohol-education program; her DUI charge will be dismissed in one year if she completes the program. Pawlowski will be arraigned on Jan. 26.
Regardless of the legal outcomes for them and others who have been arrested for nonviolent crimes, one thing is certain: making mistakes is part of the human condition.
That doesn’t mean that drunk driving is inevitable or excusable on the grounds that we are all fallible. What it does mean is that decent, intelligent people don’t always do the right thing for a variety of reasons. It is unfortunate.
But what is even more unfortunate is society’s knee-jerk reaction to banish forever those who get arrested. The result is wasted human capital.
Individuals who get arrested and then make amends still have much to offer. Discarding their collective talents is a mistake, a lost opportunity. But our criminal justice system does that all the time with individuals who commit nonviolent crimes. Their criminal record follows them for life, severely limiting their opportunities to find meaningful employment.
Sen. James Webb, D-Va., wants to change that. He is calling for significant reform of the U.S. criminal justice system and incarceration policies. He maintains that the current system strips former criminals and felons of any chance to find a job upon release. He says we must lock up the most dangerous, not divert time and money to incarcerate the nonviolent. “This means making sharp distinctions between offenders of violent crimes and those incarcerated for nonviolent crimes, drug abuse and mental illness,” Webb states on his Web site.
According to the Urban Institute, 2.25 million people are incarcerated in approximately five thousand U.S. prisons and jails. The combined cost of local, state, and federal governments for law enforcement and corrections personnel totals more than $200 billion.
While Webb pursues criminal justice reform on the federal level, Connecticut lawmakers should consider complementary state reforms.
For example, they should dedicate the $147 million in tax revenues earned from alcohol sales to programs that mitigate the damage caused by those same sales. The state must stop treating alcohol sales taxes as an income stream available to plug budget holes. It should spend that money on alcohol and drug rehabilitation and the creation of a new Department of Motor Vehicles system that monitors the installation and maintenance of ignition interlock devices that make it impossible for an intoxicated person to operate a vehicle.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had it right in 2006 when he proposed that upon an individual’s first DUI arrest, he or she should be required to install an interlock device. This would save lives while reducing the state’s inmate population and saving taxpayer money.
State officials should also support alternative incarceration and diversionary programs. Punish nonviolent offenders in a way that truly provides an opportunity for their rehabilitation. That would help reduce the state’s shameful 41 percent recidivism rate.
Criminal justice reform would not only reduce the state’s inmate population and eliminate unnecessary state spending, it would also go a long way toward shifting the attitudes of an unforgiving society.
