Cheer

It’s far too early to say whether the effort will produce any positive outcomes, but state officials are on the right track with the formation of an anti-recidivism effort. The new group — the Pennsylvania Reentry Council — will include state agencies, federal prosecutors and 21 re-entry coalitions from across the commonwealth.

This is the brainchild of state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is right to argue that state and national prison systems are broken. When two-thirds of convicts end up being reincarcerated, a change needs to be made.

People re-entering society from prison face challenges that range from access to housing to getting government identification and finding treatment services for mental health and addiction.

Continuing a vicious cycle of arrest and imprisonment doesn’t make our country safer. Finding ways to help these people restart their lives and find success and happiness will.

Jeer

If you’re paying attention, it’s easy to see why Pennsylvania taxpayers object to many spending increases proposed by our elected officials.

Lt. Gov. Mike Stack, already under fire for his treatment of state employees, is now being shellacked (and rightly so) for his abusive billing of taxpayers while living in his taxpayer-funded residence.

According to a published report, Stack billed taxpayers for $34,000 in groceries, two leather cuff link boxes and thousands of dollars worth of candy and flags. Records from the Office of the Budget show that Stack’s office spent more than $73,000 over a 24-month period.

That’s in addition to the $452,900 taxpayers spent in 2016 to run the lieutenant governor’s mansion. Nearly $15,000 of the expenses were online orders through Amazon.

Again, with reform in the air this budget cycle, it’s time to consider paring down some of these ridiculous government expenses. Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that provides a taxpayer-funded residence to a lieutenant governor.

Stack’s conduct is a perfect example of why that’s a bad idea.

Cheer

Members of St. John United Church of Christ in Evans City put together a touching display of the lives Butler County lost last year to the drug overdose epidemic.

To memorialize the deaths, members set up 74 crosses with white T-shirts on the church’s lawn. The church also held a special service at 10 a.m. today.

The display proved to be a moving sight, and we hope it helps people better conceptualize the loss of life that is now routinely occurring both here and across the country.

It can be easy to distance ourselves from the reality of overdose deaths, or to find ourselves numb to the constant stream of news about the opioid crisis. But we should never lose sight of what we’re really talking about: people’s lives. The church’s efforts should remind us of that.