A criminal justice discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington, D.C., included the idea of using mental health counselors in some emergencies rather than just police, thus freeing up officers to do their core function of keeping communities safe. “We expect our police to be domestic violence counselors, mental health counselors, substance abuse counselors,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We expect police to have the answer to every single problem within a split second — oftentimes 10 to 15 times a day. We have to give them the support so they can do their core function of patrolling, keeping communities safe, and investigating very serious crimes, and putting the bad guys in jail.” As York County, Pa., district attorney and now as attorney general, Sunday also has talked about providing help for inmates who are released from custody so they don’t return to prison.
“When people come out of prison, what I want to see is them work,” he told CPAC. “I want people to have career jobs. I want to see people take care of their families and pay their taxes and pay restitution and, more importantly, recognize that they have the power within themselves to change their lives. They don’t need government to do that.”. Sunday was introduced as the only Republican who last fall was elected to succeed a Democratic attorney general. Other speakers on the panel were Glenn Jacobs, mayor of Knox County, Tenn., and a professional wrestler who goes by Kane in the ring; and Savannah Chrisley, who starred in two reality TV series, “Chrisley Knows Best” and “Growing Up Chrisley,’’ and whose parents were imprisoned for fraud and tax evasion. “The biggest news to come out of CPAC was that they honored people who were convicted of the Jan. 6 insurrection, people who were convicted criminals,” said J.J. Balaban, a Philadelphia-based Democratic strategist. “It’s kind of weird and is going to strike some people in a bad way that that’s where the new [Pennsylvania] AG is choosing to spend his time.”