During a community meeting Thursday, state House candidates Tom Quirk and Wilford Carter — both retired judges — said mass incarceration is an issue they plan to tackle if elected in October.

Quirk said he has a record of working to rehabilitate convicts during his 36-year career as judge. He established a court policy that allowed non-felony offenders to serve time in church as opposed to jail, a precedent that garnered national attention.

He said he believes in “positive encouragement” for offenders before they earn prison sentences. He said he will work to provide alternatives to jail for first-time or minor offenders.

“The whole thing to me is rehabilitation, and rehabilitation means changing the way they think,” he said.

He said he would press for laws that reduce the prison population in the state, which leads the world in incarceration. He said he would promote alternatives like GPS trackers for convicts so that they can serve their sentences on house arrest and continue to provide for their families.

Carter said he worked to keep drug offenders out of long prison sentences on first and second offenses. He said one of the state’s biggest issues is the unaffordably high bonds that judges set. He said he would work for bonds to be controlled — a move Quirk said would not make it through the Legislature.

He also accused the District Attorney’s Office of allowing drug charges to pile up in order to secure longer sentences instead of executing warrants early on, providing help to offenders before they earn hefty prison sentences.

“We need to treat addiction, not jail addiction,” Carter said.

He said the state’s privatization of entities — like hospitals, schools and prisons — is a trend he will fight to reverse.

Chris Tyson, candidate for secretary of state, also spoke at the event, along with Lake Charles City Councilwoman Mary Morris. Various other candidates for the fall city and state elections were available at the meeting, which was hosted by the VISA Coalition and Morris.

Coalition president Derrick Kee said the group will have another meeting in September.

(MGNonline)