OPINION: ' Vote for Tony Hwang, Man of Insight, Vision and Courage'

Letter to the Editor:

Connecticut has a problem and somebody has to stand up to it.

Our state’s Criminal Justice system consumes well over a billion dollars a year of our tax money and, sadly, the results are not satisfactory largely due to a system of harsh punishment for non-violent offenders resulting in hyper incarceration. To wit: America has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prisoners.

The person who is now, has been, and always will be willing stand up to this difficult issue is State Senate candidate Tony Hwang.

Incarceration is an important part of our society for those unable to abide by the law. However, while Criminal Justice is a very nuanced topic, the baseline facts are rather straight forward:

First, consider that 9 in 10 incarcerated people have either addiction and/or mental health issues; second, realize that 95% of incarcerated people are released.

Therefore our job is rather clear: to treat and cure as many of those people as we can while in custody. Then, in their post release time, supervise and support them as best we can back to the point of making them into productive, tax paying, responsible members of our Connecticut community. Everybody wins – including you!

Ask yourself: would you rather have a formerly incarcerated person on the street with a job or without a job?

Unfortunately, this logic has escaped many of our dedicated legislators. They sequester themselves into a hard core position of not wanting to appear “soft on crime” which renders them unable to get to a much more enlightened mentality of being “smart on crime” as many other states have already done. Hence they become part of the problem when they could (more appropriately) be part of the solution.

Not so with Tony Hwang. He is a man of insight, vision and courage.

As a child of immigrant parents, he has personally known hard times and persevered. He realizes that we all need a real second chance to reclaim our lives and get back onto the path of responsible citizenship. He advocates for addiction and mental health treatment for incarcerated persons and for support in their reentry process. Not only that, Tony has personally invested his own time working with individuals to help get them back on the path to productive, peaceful citizenship.

It is for that reason that Tony has the courage to tell you that there is a better way to deal with our Criminal Justice system and he is willing to stand up and fight for that.

Please don’t miss the opportunity to elect this dedicated, brilliant, caring and courageous man to our State Senate.

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