March
3, 2005
OSBORNE EXECUTIVE CALLS STEWART SENTENCE UNREASONABLE; URGES GREATER FOCUS ON ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING
New York—Martha Stewart’s
release to home confinement is bringing welcome attention
to the issue of fair and appropriate sentencing, officials
of the Osborne Association said today. Osborne is one
of the largest leading multi-service criminal justice
organizations in the United States, operating programs
in community sites, courts, prisons and jails.
“Martha Stewart has never posed a public safety
risk and should never have been incarcerated,” said
Elizabeth Gaynes, Executive
Director of Osborne. “Nevertheless, there was an
effort to take into account the nature of her conviction,
the impact of incarceration on her work and family, and
her superb potential for redemption.”
Osborne officials point to numerous alternatives to incarceration
that should be routinely considered including home release/house
arrest, release to drug treatment programs, community
service and day reporting, restitution, probation, work
release, electronic monitoring and intensive community
supervision.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there are
more than 2 million incarcerated individuals in the United
States—the largest prison population in the industrialized
world. Hundreds of thousands are imprisoned under mandatory
minimum sentences and other lengthy prison terms that
do not rehabilitate incarcerated men and women, nor repair
the community where a crime took place, Osborne officials
say. Further, the prison population has increased more
than seven times in the last three decades forcing state
and county corrections department to gut rehabilitation
programs while trying to manage a prison overcrowding
and economic crisis.
“The impact of the incarceration build up over
the last three decades is forcing states, counties and
communities to rethink the economic costs of locking people
up,” said Gaynes. “But
the real impact is what incarceration does to people,
their families and their communities.”
“America is welcoming Martha Stewart home,”
Gaynes said. “Her inevitable
success should remind all of us that when people come
home from prison their success is in all of our hands.
To the degree that we reduce the barriers to their re-integration
and support them and their families in their struggles,
all of our communities will be stronger and more secure.”
Founded in 1931, the Osborne Association offers opportunities
for individuals who have been in conflict with the law
to transform their lives through innovative, effective,
and replicable programs that serve the community by reducing
crime and its human and economic costs.
- Matt Losak
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