Monday Must Reads

JESSICA’S LAW: WHEN FEAR PERVERTS JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY.

When Jessica’s Law passed a few years ago, it was clear that it was an emotionally-based piece of legislation, not a practical one, and that it would eventually be challenged in court. That day has arrived and the decision is due Monday from the California Supreme Court.

Of all those who commit crimes, sex offenders are the most reviled, even inside prison. Yet the designation covers a wide range of offenses, some serious, some comparatively minor. Whatever the offense, when the offenders are paroled, like all of us, they must have a place to live. Throughout the state, Jessica’s Law has made living anywhere but the street all but impossible as this late December SF Weekly article describes.

In short, the unrealistic, ill-thought-out law prevents the sex offenders from finding stable living arrangements and keeps exactly no one safer. Let us hope that the CA Supremes strike it down.

This is from ABC:

“We are actually walking time bombs out here because we are suffering from sleep deprivation,” said a paroled sex offender who wished to remain anonymous.

Some of them choose to be homeless, but the 45 sex offenders released from prison to San Francisco after Jessica’s Law took effect, are forced to serve their three-year parole living on the streets.

This law needs to go.

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CUTTING CULTURE

Monday the City Council’s budget committee is due to discuss ways to address the fact that the city is facing a shortfall of $208 million. One of the cuts that has a great many people extremely upset is the elimination of LA’s Cultural Affairs Departments, which gives grants for art programs for kids, community concerts and a great many other programs that are of enormous value to the health and well being of the city’s neighborhoods and communities.

Among those protesting the cuts at Monday’s meeting will be LA’s iconic author/poet Luis Rodriguez whose cultural center/book store, Tia Chucha is renown for its rich programs

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IS THERE AN ECOLOGICAL UNCONSCIOUS?

Sunday’s New York Times Magazine has a fascinating article about scientists that are looking at the psychological interplay between human beings and their environment. Among the ideas they are exploring: the emotional costs of ecological decline. It’s more than worth your time.

By the way, a slightly different but related thought: There has been much talk about the damage to the psyche caused by solitary confinement. But is it the lack of human contact alone that drives people crazy in solitary? Or is it, at least in part, the separation from from any sight of the sun, the trees, the sky?

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THE GUITAR THAT SAVES DROP OUTS

Adolfo Guzman Lopez has the story of a special assembly with Los Lobos guitarist Louie Perez at the Frida Kahlo High School in LA. Frida Kahlo is Big Picture charter school, a group that has a great record got getting and keeping kids in school, helping them discover and develop their talents, thus allowing them excel. Read about Big Picture in general, here.