Dane Co. Sheriff says call them residents rather than jail inmates

Now here’s a good idea-

I can already see this making a huge, huge difference in the incarcerated community: the Dane County Sheriff says his office will no longer refer to jail inmates as inmates...and instead they will be referred to as ‘residents’.

Dane County Sheriff's office will now use 'resident' instead of ‘inmate’

I know I’m always being difficult, but ‘residents’ still isn’t the right word. That suggests the inmates live there-long term.

County jails are for shorter term long up. Weeks and months. Not years. So, ‘guests’ might be more appropriate.

I read a column related to Afghanistan in which the columnist made this good point: today’s leftists think that-by the very power of their word choice-they can change reality.

And this is a theme that i can see myself coming back to, repeatedly, because it is true now, more than ever.

Democrats in the modern era have always played this game in which they thought they could change the narrative by relabeling things.

For example...govt run health care started out as ‘socialized medicine. But that’s got ‘socialism’ right in it so they changed it to ‘government run health care’...but no one wants that, either. We know govt only screws things up.

So, then it became ‘universal’ health care, and that got exposed as the same only socialized, govt run product...and so...in desperation...democrats moved to ‘single payer’. A term that no average person could possibly decipher.

And i could provide instance after instance. Liberal became progressive...and now....’socialist’ has also become ‘progressive’...because most Americans still don’t want socialism.

So, the democrats have always done this sort of re-labeling, but now it has become a religion with their activists and elected officials.

And just like a religion- they now take it as an ‘article of faith’ that their changing of the label changes the reality.

It doesn’t.

Jail inmates will still be inmates Illegal aliens will still be illegal. Socialism will still be socialism. Men in drag will still be men in drag, not women.

But when it comes to ‘normalizing’ convicted criminals, it signals another step in the wrong direction.

Over the last 30 years, activist democrats have normalized all sorts of things that-for the good of society-should! - come with a stigma.

Remember the push to normalize welfare benefits and government handouts- so that people who took them didn’t feel stigmatized?

We conservatives argued that they-should feel! -stigmatized, because it is that stigma or social shame that will motivate them to get off the welfare rolls and become productive members of society.

We lost that battle and look at where we are now: now being on welfare programs and relying on a government check are considered normal. Routine. Why should those people be stigmatized?

And why shouldn’t they be able to make demands like larger rent assistance checks and larger food stamp stipends.

And why shouldn’t their food stamp cards be able to be used at fast food restaurants? Just because they are poor, they shouldn’t be able to waste their money on KFC. Just because you taxpayers are paying for it.

We-on the right-have lost all these wars, as our govt. welfare and entitlement programs have continued to grow and grow and grow.

And this has occurred as the percentage of Americans paying federal income taxes has continued to shrink, and shrink, and shrink.

Heck-even the IRS is a welfare office now- sending. Quote...refund checks...worth thousands of dollars to people who never paid in.

This- is the danger of ‘normalizing’ things that should have a social stigma attached to them- like crime.

People who have committed crimes-should feel-like they are being punished and separated from society-and they -should-carry that feeling around with them for a while once they get out- as an incentive to not commit new crimes.

Instead-we’ve seen a relentless push to end jail and prison terms and push anyone who isn’t a murderer into a counseling program instead of prison.

So, we already have a revolving door legal system that most criminals know is a joke and only emboldens them to commit more crimes-and more serious crimes.

And now the left wants to take the stigma out of being a convicted criminal? They want to take the ‘sting’ out of jail time?

Come on.

How does this benefit society?

This is the first news i have read about Dane county’s new sheriff, Kalvin Barrett. He’s a Black man, of course, or he wouldn’t have the job in a county like Dane-that is hyper focused on race and assuaging their white guilt.

But Kalvin Barrett is also -clearly- a liberal activist who is only going to be masquerading as a law enforcement officer.

And that’s disappointing.

You residents of Dane county- expect crime to get worse before it gets better.

And remember- if an escaped inmate-

Sorry-if an escaped ‘resident’ of the Dane county prison breaks into your house and ties up and victimizes your family...

Remember to view them as a guest. The sheriff says that is a ‘person within your care’ now....so...don’t think of them as your rapist or your killer...be more ‘humanizing’.

This is one of Kalvin Barrett’s first actions as sheriff, and he’s already signaled to the world that he’s a clown.

photo credit: Getty Images
story credit: The Cap Times


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