Solving The World's Problems
Every one has been there. You are at a party, imbibing whatever social lubricant you enjoy. After an hour or two when everyone is relaxed and open, but people haven't gotten too stupid yet, it is time to Solve The World's Problems. Some topic comes up and people debate and express, emote and berate. Eventually this devolves into a shouting match with possible pushing and shoving, or people realize that indeed we cannot solve the world's problems. But it is so much fun to try.
So the topic the other night was prison reform. At least it started as prison reform, but I quickly got off the subject of cable TV for prisoners and onto social reasons that prison is used as a method of punishment. I believe that prison is not so much about justice as it is about retribution. Prison gives us a way of exacting revenge as a society while maintaining our superiority as enlightened individuals. After all, we do not chop off hands or feet in punishment of crime. We do not stone women who have had the audacity to be raped. We do not beat women who dare to show a little leg should they trip and fall on the way to the market. No, we send people to prison who smoke marijuana to relieve pain. We imprison those who have mental illnesses that leave them less capable of being responsible members of society. We imprison men who grew up suffering intolerable abuse and neglect and who later commit terrible crimes.
What to do, what to do. I have no idea. But I do know that desperately holding onto our illusions of justice is a bad thing. As a society we talk about rehabilitation in the same sentence in which we talk about meting punishment. Does anyone else see the problem here? You cannot rehabilitate and punish at the same time. The purpose of imprisonment, society's legal revenge option, is not to make the criminal into a better person. Imprisonment as a form of punishment is used to force the punishee to consider their actions and atone. They are to suffer for their sins. And yes, let us bring in the religious connotations because religion and imprisonment go hand in hand. Imprisoning criminals makes society feel better. It is a catharctic release. We temporarily remove a problem citizen and life is oh so much better. I hear people positively gloating as they imagine the conditions a prisoner will face. They want these men to suffer abuse and rape. They want pain and suffering to rain down on him as he rained suffering down on them.
Well, OK. I can see wanting violent criminals to suffer. Rape and abuse is over the line though. But what about non-violent criminals. What about people who had the misfortune to be born into bad circumstances? What about the mentally ill and those who grew up in abusive homes? What about those who are in prison for simple possession crimes? I think we should have two justice systems in place. One should be a rehabilitation system. Petty crooks, drug addicts, mentally ill, severely abused etc should be given an opportunity to recover and better themselves. We should do this, if for no other reason than to turn them into producers in society instead of consumers. Come on, my taxes are high enough, let them help.
And the big, bad meanies? Short of chopping off limbs..... prison is all we have. Or is it? Who has figured out the solution the this problem of the world? Come on, have a drink or two and respond.
So the topic the other night was prison reform. At least it started as prison reform, but I quickly got off the subject of cable TV for prisoners and onto social reasons that prison is used as a method of punishment. I believe that prison is not so much about justice as it is about retribution. Prison gives us a way of exacting revenge as a society while maintaining our superiority as enlightened individuals. After all, we do not chop off hands or feet in punishment of crime. We do not stone women who have had the audacity to be raped. We do not beat women who dare to show a little leg should they trip and fall on the way to the market. No, we send people to prison who smoke marijuana to relieve pain. We imprison those who have mental illnesses that leave them less capable of being responsible members of society. We imprison men who grew up suffering intolerable abuse and neglect and who later commit terrible crimes.
What to do, what to do. I have no idea. But I do know that desperately holding onto our illusions of justice is a bad thing. As a society we talk about rehabilitation in the same sentence in which we talk about meting punishment. Does anyone else see the problem here? You cannot rehabilitate and punish at the same time. The purpose of imprisonment, society's legal revenge option, is not to make the criminal into a better person. Imprisonment as a form of punishment is used to force the punishee to consider their actions and atone. They are to suffer for their sins. And yes, let us bring in the religious connotations because religion and imprisonment go hand in hand. Imprisoning criminals makes society feel better. It is a catharctic release. We temporarily remove a problem citizen and life is oh so much better. I hear people positively gloating as they imagine the conditions a prisoner will face. They want these men to suffer abuse and rape. They want pain and suffering to rain down on him as he rained suffering down on them.
Well, OK. I can see wanting violent criminals to suffer. Rape and abuse is over the line though. But what about non-violent criminals. What about people who had the misfortune to be born into bad circumstances? What about the mentally ill and those who grew up in abusive homes? What about those who are in prison for simple possession crimes? I think we should have two justice systems in place. One should be a rehabilitation system. Petty crooks, drug addicts, mentally ill, severely abused etc should be given an opportunity to recover and better themselves. We should do this, if for no other reason than to turn them into producers in society instead of consumers. Come on, my taxes are high enough, let them help.
And the big, bad meanies? Short of chopping off limbs..... prison is all we have. Or is it? Who has figured out the solution the this problem of the world? Come on, have a drink or two and respond.
posted by Stoic Stranger at 8:54 AM
3 Comments:
Oh, solving the worlds problems. You need a superheroine (like me) for that. There are three different philosophical ways to look at incarceration: (1) punishment (you did a so you go to prison for b time to punish you); (2) societal vaccination/ostracism (you did a and to protect ourselves, we need to remove you from our midst; we believe that will take x amount of time for the risk to us to diminish); and (3) reform/rehabilitation (you did a, which means you haven't learnt b and there for we will send you to a separate location until you have learnt b).
Redemption/rehabilitation has really been tossed down the crapper in the U.S. of late, so (1) and (2) are really our primary motivators. And really just (1), because after all that punishment, when (if) people get out, they are almost guaranteed to be better criminals (better and committing crimes and getting away with them, more violent, more angry) than when sentence, so the societal vaccination only works up until the release date. Death penalty proponents then use this sort of thing as an argument for execution. Except, of course, you can't do that for the drug offenses, and those people, who maybe were just feckless fools going in, come out nice hardened criminals, thereby effectively making us all less safe.
Great system.
Oh, well so long as we think of prison as higher education for criminals, I guess that makes it more palatable. Now that janitors are maintenance engineers.... So what do we rename criminals? Wealth re-distributors? Tax avoidance counselors? hmmmmmm. I think we really do need a super hero.
Good thing I'm here then. Foilwoman is on the job.
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