by Patricia Tatum

Created on: June 05, 2009

The following is from a section of Cleveland.com entitled "Crime and Justice: Fugitives of the Week":

Lucious Woods -

The Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force is offering a reward for information which would lead to the arrest of fugitive Lucious Woods. Woods is wanted for a parole violation, failure to appear for carrying a concealed weapon and for failure to register as a sex offender.

Woods has a violent criminal history which includes gross sexual imposition and burglary. Woods should be considered armed and dangerous.

The fact that this person is a violent criminal on the loose is disturbing enough. What is even more disturbing is that he is one more example of a penal system that is failing miserably in terms of reducing recidivism. Consider the charges against him: parole violation, failure to appear for carrying a concealed weapon and failure to register as a sex offender. In this one sentence alone is proof that he had previously been convicted of a least one crime and charged with at least one other different crime. This man, as in the case of many others, left prison only to return to a life of crime. As a society, we have buried our heads in the sand rather than admit that major change is needed and we are only hurting ourselves. We hurt ourselves in the obvious way by opening the door to becoming victims of crime. We hurt ourselves economically by releasing people back into society without the tools to become a productive citizen.

The purpose of our corrections system has historically been punishment to deter future crimes. We're a far cry from putting people in stocks, burning them at the stake or feeding them only bread and water. We have become an enlightened society in terms of rehabilitation. We still want the criminals locked up of course, but we are also providing some opportunities for education and rehabilitation. The focus is primarily on treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 45% of federal inmates with a history of drug use were involved in a treatment program. This is a good first step, but it falls short of what is needed to give these inmates the skills to succeed in society. If you start with an undereducated, unemployed drug addict who doesn't know where to begin in order to become a productive citizen and give them only addiction treatment, you end up with an undereducated, unemployed ex-drug addict who still doesn't know where to begin in order to become

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