Some church officials in Kentucky have taken to sitting in courtrooms to pressure judges and prosecutors into giving nonviolent drug offenders more jail time.

John Becknell enters the courtroom and finds his usual spot in the front row, just behind the prosecutor’s table.

[...]

The purpose? To make sure drug offenders in eastern Kentucky are getting what they deserve.

[...]

Abner said his church hasn’t neglected its prison ministry or other counseling programs. Still, he added, “we believe in giving people chances, but how many chances do you give them?”

To paraphrase the reader who sent me the story, something about “70 times seven” chances seems to ring a bell.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 11:09 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.