John DeStefano for Connecticut Governor - Public Safety

The Debate over the Patriot Act

2005-11-06T06:03:39Z

For those of you interested in being more involved with the West Wing debate, they have a site, http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing/Campaign/Debate/submit.shtml where you can submit questions. It is probably too late to get the questions in, but it is worth a try.

I submitted this question:

Today's Washington Post reports that, "The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms"

Do you believe that the Patriot Act as it now stands is making the United States safer, or do you believe that the erosion of civil rights is endangering the United States?

The Washington Post article starts off talking about the case here in Connecticut. You can read the article here.

I hope you all come back to join us as we live blog the debate.

London Explosions

2005-07-07T11:47:51Z

Our thoughts and prayers are with those in London as they deal with the series of explosions that rocked the city during this morning's rush hour.

Protecting those who protect us

2005-05-12T07:25:32Z

Yesterday, the City of New Haven unveiled its new hazardous duty robot. The unveiling started off with a sad illustration of why this robot is so important. Police Chief Francisco Ortiz started off the news conference asking us all to offer up our prayers for Detective Sgt. Gene Heiney and Officer William Bergantino of Old Saybrook. They had been shot in the line of duty earlier in the afternoon. It was the first time in over twenty years that an officer in Old Saybrook had been involved with a shooting. Bergantino had been hit in the foot and the back and a bulletproof vest had saved his life.

Juvenile "Justice" In Connecticut

2005-03-15T10:07:04Z

Today is Juvenile Justice Day 2005, and a report by the Coalition for Juvenile Justice points out that Connecticut is one of only three states to consider 16-year-old adults in criminal proceedings. While there is a debate going on in Hartford about whether or not the age of adulthood should be changed, it's also important to consider what Connecticut does with juvenile offenders.

The Connecticut Post ran a short item Sunday on the ongoing debate over the size of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School planned for Bridgeport. While there's been a lot of attention paid to the contracts to build the center, which a lawsuit filed last fall contends were illegally steered to the Tomasso Group, it's nice to see someone focusing on the real issues: whether Connecticut needs to keep putting kids in prison, or whether the time has come for real reform, innovative programming, and a move towards smaller facilities. Rehabilitation is an integral part of any criminal justice system; it's unimaginable that a juvenile correctional facility would have any focus other than rehabilitation.