Channel 13 has obtained video of a Clark County District Court judge being violently attacked by a man during a hearing on Wednesday morning.
WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The man involved in the attack is Delone Redden, who was being sentenced for aggravated battery with substantial bodily harm prior to the attack on Judge Mary Kay Holthus. He entered a guilty plea in a previous hearing.
The video shows Judge Holthus denying Redden’s request for probation due to his criminal history and preparing to sentence him to jail time. Redden can be seen then leaping over the judge’s bench to tackle her.
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According to the Las Vegas District Court, Judge Holthus experienced some injuries and her condition is being monitored. The marshal sustained injuries and has been transported to the hospital.
What would you suggest should be done?
Great question.
What are the realistic alternatives to incarceration?
It’s true that a relatively small percentage of offenders will require a custodial sentence for the benefit of society as that is the safest place to manage them but, for the majority of offenders this will do more harm than good. Correctional centres are criminogenic [1].(https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=criminaljustice_facpubs)
Instead, society more broadly needs to treat the root cause of a lot of crime, which is, that crime is a socioeconomic problem.
By properly funding a social safety net, including job programs, housing and education for vulnerable people (yes, criminals are actually vulnerable people) you would see a reduction in crime and criminal behaviour.
Say that this doesn’t satisfy your Old Testament lust for vengeance though? You need a pound of flesh? In that case correctional facilities that actually function to rehabilitate do exist and don’t have to be punitive and inhumane. I could point to Nordic examples but the reality is any centre that has programs designed and implemented to actually be therapeutic and a safe environment would be better than the current status quo.
This again though requires significant state investment and will mean that the for-profit correctional industry ceases to exist. It is a bad idea to profit from incarceration as it sets up perverse incentives. Why would a private prison want to rehabilitate people? It would put them out of business.
There are plenty of other options as well, diversionary sentencing, community courts, restorative justice etc etc but this should hopefully give you a flavour of the very well understood solutions to this problem.