I LOOK forward to the day when the headline reads “Massachusetts community aims to block 3-strikes bill’’ (“Black leaders aiming to halt 3-strikes bill,’’ Page A1, Jan. 23).
Yes, the black community is organizing to prevent the state from making our sentencing laws more rigidly harsh and inflexible. But this is an issue that affects every resident in the Commonwealth. It’s not “tough on crime.’’ It’s tough on Massachusetts.
This is budget season, and social services are on the chopping block again. Every new dollar we pour into keeping people locked up in already overcrowded prisons is a dollar taken away from children, the elderly, and the needy. And it’s money taken away from real public safety measures such as infinitely less costly comprehensive re-entry services.
