#30 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Monday May 17)
Good morning,
A QUOTE
By suppertime all that remains is the scent of balsam fir. If it’s darkness we’re having, let it be extravagant.
--Jane Kenyon, “Taking Down the Tree”
JUSTICE FEELS CRIMINAL
Our criminal justice system is broken. Mandatory minimum sentencing, plea bargaining as a means of prosecutors racking up wins (regardless of culpability), terrible defense counsel, parole boards that hear arguments for retribution from victims’ families, inconsistent sentencing for similar crimes, ridiculously long sentences without any attempt to rehabilitate. Where does it end? We run a gulag of prisons that offer no philosophical basis for improving society or the lives of inmates. Prison is designed to keep people away from the “normal” citizenry, without rehabilitation. They pump iron, watch TV, join gangs, learn no marketable skills, and wait until they are released. Then they face a society more advanced than they left, with few social connections and vilification and labeling that make productive lives nearly unattainable.
PERSPECTIVES ON INCARCERATION—HISTORICAL AND CURRENT
It remains a shameful statistic that the U.S. is incarcerating more people than any other developed nation and any other democracy—by a lot. But it hasn’t always been that way, as Peter Bain notes:
“It bears remembering that deTocqueville’s project that culminated in his epic Democracy in America masterpiece, actually had its roots in the study of the early American prison system. France’s prison system is explicitly rooted in punishment and retribution, and deTocqueville came to the States (this was back when France admired us) in the 1830’s to study what was our then revolutionary model of a rehabilitation-based incarceration system. How far we have fallen....”
And Mark Ferrell points out:
“Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the things that need to be changed in our country. I see how other countries handle so many social issues much better than we do and sigh in dismay. Our generation remembers when America was the envy of the world — everyone wanted to be more like America and/or own American products. Now it seems we've been surpassed on many levels, no longer leading. It's as if they've grown up and we're still petulant teens.
Scandinavian countries consistently rank as the happiest in the world, with solid economies, good income levels, low unemployment, low crime, universal healthcare, and, not only low incarceration rates, but a completely different system of incarceration based on humanization and rehabilitation.
Having known two people in the criminal justice system, I've had a closer look at mass incarceration first-hand. It's not pretty. American is #1 when it comes to imprisoning its citizens with 2.3 million people incarcerated and many, many more still in the system. That is shameful in the "the land of the free." If memory serves, the country in second place to imprison its citizens is Russia with fewer than half the amount of people in prison as the U.S.
It's mind-boggling that we can't do better than this. It's disheartening that our country, which has attained and contributed so much to the world with democracy, freedom, and innovation, seems so hopelessly mired. And, after a rare occasion watching a short segment of FOX News last night, I'm at a loss to see how we reunite under our flag and Constitution, and all the American virtues in which I was raised to believe.”
Have a good day,
Glenn