Hit 'em Again Healey

Our Lady of Perpetual Punishment, Kerry Healey, posts a fascinating résumé-let. Given that her best shots dribble right off the end of the barrel, we can assume that she'll try the razzle-dazzle. She'll want us to assume accomplishment and responsibilities. So, she won't discuss any of this mess.

There is a more bloated version, but the one she puts on the Meet Kerry Healey section of her Website reads:

As Lieutenant Governor, Kerry Healey assumed a broad range of responsibilities in the Romney-Healey administration. She has drawn on her background in criminal justice to promote tougher public safety laws. Kerry has been a leader in efforts to increase penalties for sex offenders and drunk drivers. A vocal advocate for victims, Kerry has also championed legislation to mandate post-release supervision for convicted criminals as well as legislation to track violent criminals (including domestic abusers) using GPS technology.

That is followed with the then-my-father-got-sick routine. She does a Deb Goldberg about having to work during high school. Lackaday.

This is not the worst CV padding in political history, far from it. However, she has taken a little bit of icing and is trying to frost a big cake.

Consider:

• Bachelor's in government, Harvard
• Ph.D. in poly sci and law, Trinity, Dublin
• Public safety consultant, Abt Associates

She claims "...at Abt, she conducted extensive research for the U.S. Department of Justice related to child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, gang violence, victim and witness intimidation and the prosecution of drug crimes." Oddly enough, for all this important work, Abt's site cites her published work as only a few things, only one as solo author.

Maybe she worked undercover.

She does not have a J.D. and is not a lawyer. Her law and safety education is just that.

She does claim to have helped raise over $1 million for the Beverly branch library, again as a co-chair. Likewise, she must be a real team player, because she was a member or co-chair of other charity efforts. As at Abt, she didn't run the show or provide the vision.

She taught as non-tenured, non-certified, adjunct faculty in criminal justice and social policy at Endicott College and UMASS/Lowell.

I don't know anyone who has verified any of this. The achievements are so low level, it doesn't seem necessary. If she used this stuff as padding, she lacks imagination.

However, as looey, what has she done?

In her description, this Healey/Hillman regime would be a mirror of a Tom Reilly one -- all prosecution, all the time. The "broad range of responsibilities in the Romney-Healey administration" she asserts seem to fall into (by her definition) punishment:

• Promoting "tougher public safety laws."
• Leading "in efforts to increase penalties for sex offenders and drunk drivers."
• Trying to get laws "to mandate post-release supervision for convicted criminals as well as legislation to track violent criminals (including domestic abusers) using GPS technology."

And the pattern is...pile it on to please, appease and deceive the voters. The throw-away-the-key and up-the-penalty ploys don't work, which she surely saw in her book learning. Yet, to a public fearful of crime, these aural tricks are siren songs.

The expense and illogic of increasing punishments has never made us safer. At its extreme, capital punishment does not deter would-be murders, but that does not stop the basest politicians from demanding it.

Healey's pattern seems to spit in the faces of the law enforcement, judicial and penal systems. When they have handed out their worst to offenders and those convicted pay their civic debt, life is supposed to go on for all of us, including the offenders. Healey is proposing in various forms that we keep kicking them.

If we have a system that supposedly hands out apt penalities, let's demand the rest of it. Instead of spending the money extending prison sentences (very expensive and non-productive), how about spending less and concentrating it on counseling, educating and repatterning the offenders. Get 'em some training and jobs to remove the drives to reoffend.

But we shouldn't have to tell her this. Anyone studying law and criminal justice should already know this stuff.

Now we come to the lip of the canyon. Look down and tell me what Healey did before or during the Romney/Healey administration? What were her accomplishments that would justify turning over the governor's office to her? What leadership has she shown that prepares her for this role?

None of that is on the big or little résumé. Talk to us, Kerry.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, governor, Deval Patrick, Kerry Healey