Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Comment: #2
Sun Nov 9, 2008 7:41 AM
Ma'am;... Clarance Aaron was black and dealing in the drug community which is like wearing a kick me sign on your back... Look who is injured here... The whole society has to keep a guy out of any productive employment and pay a huge price for doing so, and all to give a lesson to others who will never ever take it... For people to take a lesson there has to be a reasonable chance they will get caught, and two percent of many violent crimes get solved, which means a fraction of violent criminals get caught for all the crimes they do... It is the total frustration of a system that does not work, does not rehabilitate, and does not protect people, and does cost a lot of money that delivers outrageous sentences... To try to teach criminals a lesson by putting a handful in jail is like teaching a school of bait fish a lesson with a barracuda... We punish to an extreme, far beyond what individual crimes warrant, and it is unfair, and again, unproductive... Worse, it is a waste of resources because incarceration costs more than a college education, and college educated people are far less likely to commit crimes... It seems strange to threaten some people with prison when it may put them into the only society they have ever known, and may actually extend their life spans..It does not threaten the hard core criminal, but those who would never commit their first crime anyway... If criminals thought they were going to get caught, they might not do a fraction of what they do, but then, if people considered the odds they would never join an army, or charge into machine gun fire... No one thinks it will be them, and sending one to prison does not change that fact of human behavior... So, there ought to be some sense in sentencing. If you punished people for the damage they do, and the crimes they commit, it would be easier to get them back in society without a load of resentment... And we could concentrate on crime prevention, on all that works, like education, and opportunity...We know there are some crimes which are terrible in their consequences, and high in recedivism... Even there, the penalties should be so low that they do not encourage a worse crime, as when murder is added to rape; but not one of those people should be free ever of some supervision, and none should be on the street without some evidence supported by therapy that they are cured of their illness... It is so impossible to cure individuals of violence when there is so much support throughout society for violence, thinking that with rules it can be controlled... In fact, we need to redefine violence, even if it means that all actions without love are considered violent, so that violence is not a matter of speed, or kind of injury, or cause, or even effect; but of intent... Coersion is violence, and threat is violence, and prisons are violence, and poverty, for that matter, is violence, and no one should suffer these forms of violence without merit even at the hands of an outraged society. Society should teach the lesson it wants its members to learn... It should not be an expression of frustration because, wild, thoughtless force only teaches violence...Thanks...Sweeney
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