Dallas DA promotes 'smart justice'
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, November 20, 2009
Implementing "smart justice" can help ease the criminal case load on prosecutors and keep society safe, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins told a federal sentencing commission Thursday in Austin.
That means using programs for young first-time offenders who can work toward getting their charges dismissed or fast-tracking repeat low-level offenders into state jails, said Watkins, who is known for working to free wrongly convicted inmates.
Watkins said in his nearly three years in office, he has worked to implement such "smart justice." "At the end of the day, the goal is public safety," he said, adding that it's smart use of taxpayer money to attempt to ensure that imprisoned inmates don't repeat their crimes when they get out of jail. "The goal is rehabilitation, as opposed to just punishment."
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