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Look what happened in a New York court!

Mar 28, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
The focus on the justice system in recent times gives pause to all those who have hitherto shown little interest in the fate of those persons whose misfortune it was to fall foul of the law, except that they should experience justice at its most punitive or retributive.  Several things have occasioned what I describe as an attitudinal change.
But the two most significant issues are President Granger’s decision to pardon minor offenders, and the horrific conflagration at the overpopulated Georgetown prisons.  Of course sentencing policy and guidelines have come in for their bit of scrutiny but the fact remains that novel approaches must be sought to address the contentious issues which negatively impact the administration of justice.
I came across one such approach recently where Dylan Lewis, a 22 year old drug offender in a New York court avoided jail time when he opted to complete two business courses free online.
The CEO of the free learning platform described the opportunity provided to Lewis as a “new positive sentencing instrument (which) can keep minor offenders and others out of jail”, and expressed the hope that it could open “new educational sanction options to judicial systems.”
Judge William J. Watson said that free learning as a diversion instrument was one way of helping young men and women avoid re-offending.  But what struck me was his view that “… we must look to remedies that change minds, not just physical circumstances.”
Perhaps it is needless to say that Lewis enjoyed the courses and determined that he would continue learning online since as he puts it  “It’s cool … I’m learning stuff beyond my high school education that I did not think was open to me. It gets you thinking of what you could do.
Editor, stories like this show us that there are possibilities if we only can bend our mind around new concepts, and Guyana surely does not lack for brains.
Patrick E. Mentore

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