A while back I was taking an online Criminal Justice class and was amazed at how many of my cohorts were already in the system or its edges: as officers or reservists, prison or security guards, parole officers and case workers. Within the first two weeks I was labeled: bleeding heart liberal. A tag that was strange. I have never been in trouble with the law, never had a friend who was. I have never done any illegal drugs. I am not tolerant of people of who incessantly whine about being a victim of circumstances. I was, therefore, startled and appalled to meet the shining white custodians of those who found themselves on the wrong side of the system. The side that doesn’t get to decide when to go home when the door clangs shut, when to leave the light on, when to kiss the wife, the husband, the child good-night.
These radiantingly self-rightous custodians, one and all, referred to those who were behind the bars as less than the rest of us, those of us on "this side" of the bars. It was their jobs to make the criminal suffer for their "crimes against humanity" those who were making life, "harder on the rest of us". They were full of these cliches, these shining white guardians of our virtuous society.
I say I was frankly appalled! What makes a criminal a criminal? At its most basest point? It is when an individual does an act which a society has determined to be detrimental to society as a whole. While society may need laws to govern interactaction with one another a careful balance must be maintained between those laws which protect and the freedoms that those laws can suppress, oppress, depress. Look at Iran and parts of Iraq where teaching certain parts of society about specific subjects can get you the death sentence. Those who choose to violate this law are seen as the most repugnant of society, are sentenced the harshest terms and sent to the meanest prisons. Can’t happen here? What was
Ruby Ridge? Who was
Malcolm X? What happened to the
Chicago Seven/Eight? Are we so naive that we believe that only those famous incidents were the mistakes?
As most police departments are fond to point out, for every person who is caught and given a ticket usually 10 people go free. Conversely, for every person who we know about that is/was in prison for speaking out about injustice, or for their truth, there are ten more that we probably don’t know about.
Locally, I don’t believe that it is the duty, right or place of any person in the criminal justice system to further punish the people who society has deemed a criminal. Today’s criminals could be tomorrow’s revolutionaries, however, more than likely they’re just going to be your next door neighbor. I, for one, want them ready, willing and able to adjust back to “normal” society after “doing their time.” Our justice system, today, is not conducive to that. I hope whichever commissioner is sharing the job with the sheriff and the transition center manager keep in mind that it is our neighbors, friends and family members whose lives they are making decisions about. Decisions that most of us, naively, thought had already been made once –by a jury or a judge- but are now learning can be made over and over again, with verdicts and decisions interpreted willy-nilly.
A reminder to us all: If the United States had lost the revolutionary war, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin would be little more than curious footnotes, criminals in a poor attempt at a revolt against a great sovereignty. Did luck make them right or did right make them lucky?
8 comments:
There are people doing 20 years for possession. Not sale, possession. There are child molesters let out sooner. There's no rhyme or reason, but there IS a whole lot of money to be made in the corrections industry. From supplying the food to building the prisons, and so much more. Fortunes have been made by incarcerating more people, not less.
I have always wondered about the increased use of the "one-sey" striped orange and white 'prison' garb on inmates.
I realize it probably saves money and all, but dang, those people probably come out of the jail REALLY pissed off and not reformed one iota. Just an observation.
The recommendation of the Sentencing Project.
They urge policymakers to look at.
Expand the use of drug treatment as a sentencing option.
Utilize intermediate sanctions for technical violations of parole and probation.
Repeal mandatory minimum sentences and re-consider sentence lengths.
Six years for child molestation is much too long.
All they need is treatment.
I agree with the first anon recommendation. Sadly, in regards to the second anon, there is not empirical evidence or a duplicatable study that bears out the "treatment" theory. A predilection for the innocence of a child seems to be much too strong of a pull on the molestor's mind.
Is there a study of a treatment that you know of that you can share? I would love to see this heinous affliction eradicated from humanity and if a treatment has been found I am anxious to learn more about it.
My take on part of the justice system.... Parole Officiers are trained to treat all offenders as low life, they don't know where to give merit when merits are due..it's done by the book. If the Judges and Defense Attorney's are questioning the system, the parole officier should be as well. Do they try to get a offender into the transistion center, do they even know it is here?
Good article. I compare yours to the article Marquis wrote on how he views on jail!
Isn't it sad we get paid for felons? Is that why Marquis and others fail to fix the broken system that hasn't been working for years. All the jointly shared agencies that hand out punishment is a few to many.
True, true, true! I really enjoyed this article and most of the comments. I don't see sexual predators of children's innocense as people who can be cured. I think its a sickness of the mind and I sure wouldn't want it [the cure] tested it areound my kids!
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