BILL BATES: A solution to crime?

What can be done about the crime rate in Albany and other cities across America?

That is the question for which many have different answers.

So far answers and solutions have provided limited success. Drugs, legal and illegal, excessive alcohol use, poverty and poor education seem to be the big drivers of much criminal activity.

I was on a grand jury here in Albany and the 40 or so cases we looked at most of the people involved had multiple offenses, some quite numerous. Other grand juries have reported the same thing. These are career criminals and they need incentives to encourage them to stop committing crimes.

As widely reported, some break laws so they can go to jail where their basic needs are provided. Obviously, something is wrong.

Could it be that the punishment is not sufficient to discourage lawbreaking?

A book by Victor T. Cheney makes the case for a type of punishment that just might work for serious felons and serial offenders.

Maybe as a last resort his idea might work. I don’t know but given a choice between, say 30 years of hard labor or 10 years in jail plus his suggestion, who knows?

By the way, his idea is castration — for males, of course.

BILL BATES

Albany