Tough on Crime

More harm than good.

Let me tell you something straight out. Being tough on crime hasn’t worked, doesn’t work and won’t work. Get beyond the emotion and look at the facts.

“Tough on crime” fuels fear and uses that fear for personal aggrandizement, despite the harm it inflicts on innocent families and on our communities.

The longer the sentence, the longer the man or woman is separated from his or her family, the longer the child has to be without his or her father or mother, the more difficult it is for the family to recover financially, the more difficult it is for the incarcerated man or woman to find suitable work. Long sentences do nothing for victims and do not reduce crime.

As people of faith, we are told to “Fear not”. We are also told that everyone is created in the image of God and that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.