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Local duck banding work by the PGC off to a good start

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Peach Festival in Scranton celebrates Gregg Allman on day two

<p>Merely griping about the well-publicized overcrowding problem at Luzerne County&#8217;s prison won&#8217;t free up cellblock space or ease inmates&#8217; tensions.</p><p>Although not in those words, Michael Shucosky, the county&#8217;s court administrator, essentially delivered that message last week to elected officials serving on county council. Shucosky, who had been watching the council&#8217;s meeting Tuesday night from his home, hurriedly headed to the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre to respond to what he characterized as &#8220;bashing&#8221; of the court system&#8217;s programs.</p><p>Blame gangs, he suggested, for persistently pushing the lockup&#8217;s inmate population to, or slightly above, its intended capacity. Fault drug abuse and addiction for the criminal justice backlog. But don&#8217;t pin the problem on court-related employees who do their best each workday to cope with an overburdened system.</p><p>A whopping 1,000 new criminal cases likely will be brought up for trial in Luzerne County next month, Shucosky said.</p><p>&#8220;Pointing fingers is not going to resolve that,&#8221; he told the council&#8217;s members and other attendees. &#8220;It requires everybody to resolve this.&#8221;</p><p>His analysis is spot-on. And his conclusion holds true even if the phrase &#8220;prison overcrowding&#8221; gets replaced with &#8220;homelessness in the Wyoming Valley,&#8221; &#8220;local poverty rates,&#8221; &#8220;abandoned properties,&#8221; &#8220;food insecurity&#8221; or dozens of other troubles that weigh on the minds of Northeastern Pennsylvania residents.</p><p>Plenty of us howl when a crisis hits. But how many of us pose solutions? (Elected officials, as well as editorial writers, consistently should strive to match each of his or her complaints with at least one or two practical proposals for resolving it, don&#8217;t you think?)</p><p>Further, how many of us then pursue a remedy, devoting ourselves to the cooperative and sustained effort necessary to make an improvement? Not enough, it seems. Plenty of people living in this region, known for its nagging negativity, instead never get beyond the whine-about-it stage; indeed, some build political careers on it.</p><p>For those of a roll-up-the-shirtsleeve, problem-solving mentality, Shucosky alluded to several potential ways to alleviate overcrowding at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.</p><p>&#8226; Revive central court, allowing for the faster handling of cases and weeding out of offenders who don&#8217;t require incarceration.</p><p>&#8226; Open a day reporting center in Hazleton, permitting more eligible offenders there to get local drug counseling and testing.</p><p>&#8226; Expand alternative sentencing programs.</p><p>To those ideas, we would suggest a closer examination of <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/05/opinion/la-ed-pre-trial-releases-jails-20130905" target="_blank">bail restrictions</a>, <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-fix-overcrowded-jails" target="_blank">split sentencing</a> and something that North Carolina&#8217;s probation officers call the &#8220;<a href="http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/08/how_to_fix_alabama_prison_over.html" target="_blank">quick dip</a>.&#8221; (Online readers can follow the links to learn how each of these might bring relief to packed prisons.)</p><p>Can prison overcrowding be resolved by a single policy change? No, any responsible resolution probably will involve many approaches applied over time.</p><p>Here&#8217;s the takeaway: For significant progress to be made on this, or any, issue, our grumbling soon must be accompanied by our best ideas and good-faith attempts to get the problem fixed.</p><style>
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Our Opinion: Let’s pursue solutions to NEPA’s social ills, not seek scapegoats