SIDEBAR Spring 2017 - 27

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IN MEMORIAM - ARTY SCOTT
MBA staff member Arthur ("Arty") Charles Scott III passed
away suddenly on February 10, 2017. Arty was born on
August 10, 1972 in Jacksonville, FL. He graduated from
Nottingham High School in Hamilton, NJ in 1990. While
in high school, he won the state championship for golf. Arty
went on to attend Trenton State College, now known as the
College of New Jersey.
After graduation, Arty worked as a golf pro for several
country clubs in the Wilmington, NC area, including Beau
Rivage, Porters Neck, and Castle Bay. He joined the staff
of the MBA in 2014, shortly after moving to Phoenixville,
PA. Always willing to lend a helping hand and a friendly
smile, Arty made a lasting impact on the organization and its
members. He will be missed dearly.

Professor Alexander covers much
material which I don't have the space
to detail here. Topics include: the
switch from community policing to
military policing, civil forfeiture laws
which essentially bribe localities to seize
property, mandatory minimum sentences,
the number of defendants who never see
a lawyer, the number of defendants who
plead guilty to crimes merely because
they do not want to risk the strident
mandatory minimums, and the increase
in profits for private prison contractors
which encourage extending prison stays
and discourage any type of rehabilitation.
To help realize the problems caused
since President Reagan declared the War
on Drugs in the early 1980s, Professor

Alexander points out that the number of
incarcerated prisoners in the 1970s was
considered to be very high. But to get
back to that level now, we would have
to release about 80% of people currently
imprisoned.
One of the prerequisites for ending
the problems of mass incarceration is
to end the War on Drugs. As Professor
Alexander notes, "So long as people of
color in ghetto communities are being
rounded up by the thousands for drug
offenses, carted off to prisons, and then
released into a permanent undercaste,
mass incarceration as a system of control
will continue to function well."
Other steps necessary in Professor
Alexander's opinion include police not

viewing the black and brown population
as the enemy to be attacked. Public
defender offices must be funded at
the same level as prosecutor offices.
Mandatory sentences must be eliminated.
Importantly, we need effective re-entry
programs for those being released. It must
include training and education so that
ex-convicts can actually obtain prestigious
and high-paying jobs instead of just
minimum wage jobs with no future. Drug
treatment on demand must be available
to all.
There's a lot of work to be done to try
to get our criminal justice system to be
less criminal and more just. As lawyers,
we need to work towards it.

	

SPRING 2017 27
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SIDEBAR Spring 2017
