Pot luck, No Luck this Month

We’re having a tough time with our Tulsa Pot Luck, and once again we have to pull the plug for October.  Help us pass the word that there will not be a pot luck the month of Oct. in Tulsa.

DOC is looking for ways to reduce the population in our state run prisons, they are looking to put up to 1,200 plus out on ankle monitors.  That’s a good start, but as the Director of DOC said, “it’s a drop in the bucket.”  How many inmates do we have at level 4?  How many of these inmates have been at level four for 5 to 10 years?  That’s a good place to look for candidates for early release.  These men and women have worked up the ranks, and have held on to this classification which means they haven’t had a write up, and have kept the rules.  We know that our prisons have been filled up by an over zealous system that has given out max sentences for every crime for way too long.  We need a complete overhaul of this system, but which of our elected officials has the courage to start the process?  It’ll be interesting to see if of our elected leadership can find the courage to work through the problem of an out of control system that has put a tax burden on our state that is out of control.  We had a good start on the overhaul under the leadership of Chris Steel, but all his work was undone when our state leaders were unwilling to fund the programs that would have started the process of correcting the broken system.  It’s going to take leadership, it’s going to take making changes that will change the “tough on crime” to the “smart on crime” that governor has said needs to happen. 

Just throwing money at the problem won’t solve the problem, building new prisons isn’t the answer, developing a system that treats people as valuable, not trash to be thrown away  will be hard to do, because of the mind set of so many of our elected officials who have preached “tough on crime” and been elected on that platform.  Remember a man running for governor

who had a platform to overhaul our education system?  He wanted to reduce the out of control expense caused by a top heavy system, to consolidate rural schools, to not only save money for the State, but to provide money for much needed raises to our teachers on the front line?  He didn’t win, no he lost and here we are facing the same problems, and it’s getting worse.

We need to elect men and women with the courage to make the right changes, let’s do our part and elect real leaders and pray for them.