**What about Janklow and the ARGUS this time?

The Sunday ARGUS and that of today (April 28, 2008) has articles on the "Janklow 36". It is a follow up on some prisoners dumped out of the SD State Prison because of crowding and told to get out of South Dakota and not return some 30 years or so ago.

The ARGUS has followed up on the lives of some of these people. And, to probably nobody's astonishment have found that too many of them ended up following their criminal instincts and getting re-arrested and imprisoned again, etc. etc. Some blessed their lucky Janklow stars and took advantage of the unexpected freedom and made good of the rest of their lives.

I am certainly no apologist for Bill Janklow. But, it must be said about this that he put himself in a position where he could be blamed for his opinion and actions or credited and he may not have had to do that.

But, the more important point that the ARGUS is omitting or fails to recognize is that for their report to have any validity, the life of these "lucky" prisoners must be compared with similar lives of those released after they had served their full sentences back in those days.

My guess is they would have found a very similar recidivism rate and also a similar success rate if they compared this group of "Janklow 36" and and a "Random 36" from those days. The ARGUS is "Willy Horton-ing" Bill Janklow. I hope he now as a little sympathy for Gov. Dukakis and a bit of disdain for the shrill GOP rightwing attack ads like the "Swiftboaters", etc.

And, if I got something wrong in this post let me know. I am writing it without benefit of having the paper in front of me and Janklow is unlikely to be providing me with any inside information.

I have found many things to criticize Bill Janklow for, but I don't think his early release of these few prisoners is something that should be hung around his neck like a permanently rotting albatross.

***Stay tuned...maybe I will come to my partisan senses again--- Doug Wiken