Jake Sussman of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice on services to enhance public safety

 

The North Carolina General Assembly was back in Raleigh in late September to enact legislation that leaders say will quote “get tough on crime” by limiting access to bail and pre-trial release for more criminal defendants and jump-starting the state’s long un-used death penalty.

Shortly after lawmakers departed the capital, Newsline caught up with an attorney who has studied this kind of legislation and its impact on crime in several states — the Chief Counsel of the Justice System Reform team at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Jake Sussman. And sadly, Sussman says there’s no evidence that lawmakers’ “get tough” approach will make a meaningful difference. To do that, he says, lawmakers will finally need to muster the courage to engage with complex and expensive policy solutions like fixing the state’s desperately underfunded mental health system.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s Jake Sussman.