No jail for drunken drivers? I don’t think so.

Philadelphia mayoral candidate Jim Kenney is joining the ranks of those who are calling for a restructuring of our criminal justice system. Among the changes he advocates is the elimination of bail for people awaiting trial for non-violent crimes, since low income people often do not have the ability to raise even nominal bail.

The non-violent crimes in question are “retail theft, driving under the influence, prostitution and fraud”.

Maybe three of those make some sense, but I’m sure that the citizens who have lost loved ones due to drunken drivers, and especially to repeat drunken drivers, would hardly consider DUI to be a “non-violent” crime. We need to be protected from those who harm us, and drunken drivers wreak havoc on a daily basis.

Candidate Kenney needs to think more carefully about what he advocates.