Some information about Governor Palin’s criminal justice record
Over at TalkLeft, Jeralyn has this long and details post headlined “Palin , Prisoners and the Alaska Prison System.” Here is one snippet:
Joe Schmidt heads up the Alaska Department of Corrections in her administration. The previous Governor, Frank Murkowski, cut off almost all funds for treatment in prison, including for sex offenders, obviously a terrible idea. Instead he decided to focus on post-release monitoring. The ACLU sued on behalf of three sex offenders.
Joe Schmidt admitted that cutting off treatment programs (which a court had ordered for sex-offenders) was the wrong approach. Gov. Palin tried to restore some funds for treatment programs in her budget this year. The legislature refused her funding request for sex offender treatment in prisons.
I am glad to learn that Gov. Palin supported providing some treatment programs for sex offenders, and I hope to hear more good news about her on the Alaska criminal justice front.
Some recent related posts: