Everett Gillison- Mayor’s Chief of Staff, City of Philadelphia (cont’d)
We should be talking about a dramatic shift in how we end up handling what I call “your everyday kind of crime” against society whether its property crime or even violent crime there are different gradations of what that seriousness is to be. I believe we have to shorten our ability to correct . If somebody does something its certainty of punishment and and the swiftness of punishment that actually makes a difference in them understanding and correcting their behavior. That means that you don’t need to go away for a year (and what do you get by putting somebody away for a year) when all you really need to do is maybe deal with them in an intense way for a week. You would save a tremendous amount of money if we could just flip the switch on the outcome that we we truly want. Do we want to have people that we have “punished” by being penitent, or do we want to have people understand that if you do something that we’re going to arrest you , deal with you immediately, figure out what has to happen so you don’t do it again, and then watch you reenter in a way that proves that you understand, and will obey the social mores of being in society.
Everett Gillison- Mayor’s Chief of Staff, City of Philadelphia