Val Van Brocklin

The Parole Board should not be substituting its judgment for that of the judiciary.

Because our Legislature has defunded and refuses to fund less intrusive programs, forced detention and drugging have become the “go-to.”

I stand by my commentary that the white paper effectively revealed systemic failures resulting in Alaskans with mental illness being denied due process.

Thank you to the author for bringing history to life and starting my day with a new appreciation of its limitless lessons.

Alaskans with mental illness are being subjected to inhumane “treatment” without due process under the guise of protecting them.

It’s time to remove the roadblocks to those crime victims who want the reparation that forgiveness offers. It’s also time to tap this rehabilitative power for defendants, and its reduction in recidivism.

While the opinion reads like a legal win for Alaskans with mental illness, it may not result in any real change.

Science is consistently ignored by state psychiatrists, the Public Defender Agency and the courts.

Alaskans who have committed no crime and pose no emergency are processed through a revolving door of forced warehousing and drugging that doesn’t produce treatment results.

Consider that forced commitment and drugging is neither protecting nor treating. Rather, it is confining, controlling – and out of sight.

2022 was the year I got fed up with people pontificating loudly. This is the year for remedies to that problem.

Why do I do it? I wish I could tell you that joy and fulfillment comes from the endeavor, the completion, the connection with loved ones.

As Atlas Obscura noted, Alaska’s Haul Road features stunning views and places where you don’t hear another sound of humanity. So does my marriage.

I still feel ambivalent – about my own killing and nature’s. But I don’t feel ambivalent about living among wildlife.

Evidence-based research shows the length of a prison sentence doesn’t reduce crime.