Customer Reviews

Smart on Crime

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Well written and engaging, this book opens a door into big city crime and how to address it. A must-read for any would-be prosecutor and urban resident, in particular. It dispels myths about the impact of crimes with a balanced eye on the one wronged, the perpetrator and law enforcement, and should make any California resident comfortable--and hopeful--about seeing Harris in higher office. Hamilton does an excellent job of capturing the prosecutor's perspective without letting this drift into hagiography.

This author starts from the genius principal that safety is a fundamental civil right. And as such, she examines how we can use concrete, finite metrics to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in ensuring this fundamental right. I'd say she's not just SMART on crime, she's BRILLIANT!

This book, so clearly and well written, describes a comprehensive and sensible approach for actually reducing crime. Kamala Harris is a non nonsense prosecutor who has thought about how to address the actual causes of crime, as well as appropriate punishments. Everyone who is concerned about the safety of our neighborhoods, now and in the future, needs to read this book and ask our friends in law enforcement and the judiciary to carefully consider her proposals for reform of the criminal justice system.

She really explains how we're just recycling criminals. When are conservatives going to wake up and realize that throwing people in jail for nonviolent crimes is actually making our communities LESS safe rather than more safe?
Instead, we need to help them get "Back on Track".

Truancy...who'd have thought? I read the whole book but one of the things that I was most struck by was how we've always thought of truancy as a minor problem; no big deal. But here's someone who understands how addressing this `minor' problem yields big results in fighting crime.

What I really like about this book is how it exposes and debunks the myths about crime that have shackled us to the failed status quo system. Everybody should read this book

One ongoing theme that runs through Smart on Crime is this: meaningful education at all levels of life can affect crime statistics. This applies:

-- to both children and adults
-- to those who have committed crimes and are incarcerated
-- to those who have been released from prison
-- to those people who may consider criminal activity to help them survive

Smart on Crime wants parents, educators, and the law, to keep children in school. More than likely, truancy in neighborhoods where crime is rampant allows children to model what they see on the streets. It may be an act as simple as watching someone shoplift or a more serious offense like stealing a car that inspires a truant child to first steal a candy bar.

So often, truant children learn that crime does pay. Those kids who come from poverty stricken families where drugs have become a way of life, often become runners for druggies to earn money. They easily end up hooked on drugs compounding their problems. Why attend school if a miserable home life can be remedied by "taking" what you want and lifting your spirits with drugs.

As an educator, myself, I can understand Smart on Crime's wish to keep kids in school where they learn skills needed for a promising life based on their talents. But fufilling that desire is not easy. In Pittsburgh's Public Schools, social workers, counselors, and psychologists are so overwhelmed with school duties, they deal with truancy, particularly at the high school level, only when time permits.

In many cases, the only deterrent to truancy is fining parents. Smart on Crime would opt for more effective school and community programs and enough trained personnel to intervene. In 2007, the budget for military might ($548.8 billion) was six times higher than money legislated for education ($89.9 billion).

Now, as District Attorney of San Francisco, Author Kamala Harris has spent the last twenty years of her life fighting crime. She has dealt with some of the most heinous criminals who murder and rape. She would advocate that, yes, there are humans who commit crimes so hideous that they belong in prison for a very long time if not for life.

But Smart on Crime focuses on inmates jailed for less serious offences: stealing, drug possession/abuse, larceny, DUI, prostitution, and a host of similar crimes. So often, with nothing else to occupy their time, these offenders spend their days in prison planning their next heist or unlawful act to get back from society what they feel they've been denied. In San Francisco, Ms. Harris has instituted a Back on Track program to help turn drug offenders into law abiding citizens.

Smart on Crime would advocate meaningful programs in prisons that would provide hope and a new attitude toward life for the day when these offenders are released. Recidivism is rampant, but in a way, that is society's crime. Released people must have hope. They must believe they can succeed. Their egos must be built up while in prison to become strong enough to face a world outside prison--one that looks upon a person with a criminal history as an incurable cancer to society.

This is where churches, community agencies, and counseling services, must interact to insure the newly released have some haven to go to for guidance and psychological counseling, while they face the difficulties of starting a new life. Releasing prisoners without some useable skill in today's workplace is a sure guarantee he or she will return.

I think Kamala Harris would be thrilled to hear about an effort here in Pittsburgh to address children who have no place to go but the streets; often they gang together and fall by the wayside.

In Faison Middle School on busy Frankstown Avenue, there is a program for kids who are in some way needy. It is called Pittsburgh Youth Intervention Project. One of the tutors there, Astrid Ware, tells me that some children arrive in the morning and don't leave until seven or seven-thirty in the evening. While there, if need be, some kids receive breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The school provides a place to go and interact with others rather than roam the streets. I worked personally with Astrid several years ago. Her attitude, and that of the school's other teachers, have made the Faison Middle School building into the kind of successful retreat-home that Smart on Crime talks about.

This book is cleverly laid out so that its first twelve chapters discuss myths about crime. Some of these myths: Most Crime Is Violent; Some Victims Just Ask for It; Deterrence Always Works; Money Spend on Prevention Steals Money from Finding and Punishing Criminals.

The second twelve chapters explain smart ways to crack the crime pyramid. Some issues it discusses: Preventing and Reducing Violence; Dealing with Truancy; Prostitution; Returning Offenders; Protecting Witnesses; Gangs.

If you are looking for a read which is truthful about crime in America and the frustrations of dealing with it, read Smart on Crime. I would recommend it to parents, ministers, educators, law enforcement agencies, and most importantly--POLITICIANS. These legislators are the key to providing critical funds necessary to build the programs advocated by Kamala Harris--programs like those in Faison Middle School. If we are to put a real dent in crime, it must begin with our youth.

Other interesting reads:

Crime Control in America: What Works? (2nd Edition)
Criminals in the Making: Criminality Across the Life Course
Devils And Angels: Youth Policy And Crime
Violent and Non-Violent Disputes Involving Gang Youth (Criminal Justice)

Above and beyond all else, this book is SMART! I can't believe I'm actually reading something from a DEMOCRAT that makes sense, that's smart on crime, particularly one who is acknowledging that we need to take care of serious and violent criminals and there's a lot we need to do with all of the other perps in a way that doesn't break the budget! I'm surprised and impressed!!

It's so refreshing that there's someone in the criminal justice system who is being proactive and understands that we need to stop people from going into jail in the first place...and that the way to do this is dealing with early problems like truancy and helping children with post traumatic stress disorder. The thing that's great about this book is that these solutions just make so much sense. It's revolutionary and you wonder why we did it any other way, all at the same time.

I've only read half the book so far and I could barely put it down long enough to write this review. The book is so insightful and her analysis is incredibly on-point because of her unique perspective and her extensive experience; it's that same experience that makes her so effective at explaining the solutions to crime...solutions that come not be being tough on crime or soft on crime, but rather by being smart on crime. It really is a must read!