Current mood:	frustrated
Current music:	The Impossible Dream

Sometimes I really hate the "unbiased" media...
I read this story here:
http://www.katu.com/news/team2/6981292.html

I found the biased reporting utterly appalling. So I clicked "yes" on the poll asking if I think portions of Measure 11 should be repealed.



Having been invited to express my thoughts on your poll topic, I would like to
say that I am rather disgusted by the biased presentation of your report on
Measure 11 sentences. Measure 11 is forcing Oregon's Department of Corrections
to spend all of its money on housing offenders so that no money is left to treat
them. This is especially disgraceful with respect to our children.

The human brain has not reached full maturity until roughly 20-25 years of age,
so it is impossible for a 15-year-old to act with the judgment and maturity that
we expect from a grown adult. Yet Measure 11 forces us to treat these
children--children who could greatly benefit from counseling, drug and alcohol
treatment, and education--as though they were both adult offenders and
unsalvagable dregs of society.

When other young men and women are first discovering themselves in college, youth
offenders sentenced to Measure 11 prison terms are learning about violence,
racial bigotry, oppression, and resentment. This is exactly what we do NOT want
to teach our children before they become tax-paying adults in our state.

Ninety-five percent of all convicted felons are released from custody. A
15-year-old convicted of a Measure 11 crime could be 25 or 30 when released to
live in your neighborhood with absolutely no education, treatment, or preparation
to live peaceably in society. Wouldn't you rather a 17-year-old who had been
provided intensive therapy, completed a highschool education, and learned a
healthy code of ethics were released into your neighborhood instead?


Sometimes I just hate people so much.