{"id":61,"date":"2008-04-16T08:33:17","date_gmt":"2008-04-16T13:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/2008\/04\/16\/on-cruel-and-continuing-punishment\/"},"modified":"2008-04-16T08:33:17","modified_gmt":"2008-04-16T13:33:17","slug":"on-cruel-and-continuing-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/2008\/04\/16\/on-cruel-and-continuing-punishment\/","title":{"rendered":"On Cruel and Continuing Punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. -Abraham Lincoln<\/font><\/p>\n

Back, not so long ago, there was a time when a man did a crime, he did his time, and went on with life. What he did, depending on the severity, was a mistake which he paid for, and so, the state and the people having made it clear he was wrong, then gave allowed him back into society.<\/p>\n

That is no longer the case.<\/p>\n


\nPrision now, makes careeer criminals. It is rare, rare, the person who goes to prison now, does not return to prision. Thin about how fast the world is moving now, then, let’s lock you away from the knowledge of the last say 5 year( a burglery charge) . It’s a life time of technology and progress, politics and people. TV and corporate america. Worse, prison is so brutal now, one litterally has to learn to survive by becoming a criminal.<\/p>\n

We have 1 million people in prison, the highest of every developed nation, and yet, we continue to punish the guilty and let others wonder about. There are crimes that rise to a level of brutality that there is no reprieve, but it stands to reason if one is let out of prision, how much punishment is level to administer? We have lists for people, (sex offenders) and yet none for kidnappers or Murders. I understand the list; those who are clinically bound to do it again. But now some communicates are actually walling them away from the rest of everyone else. Don’t get me wrong, sex offenders (in my mind) pretty much need to be taken out back and shot, but there are 99 ways on the sex offender list, and zero ways off. Get too rowdy at spring break and Minor sees you, and you get on the list, which isn’t why the list was invented. It’s just abuse now. What about those guys from Duke, charged with a sex offense? Their lives are pretty much ruined and it’s been proven they didn’t do their crime.<\/p>\n

Cruel and unsual used to stand for the immediate punishement, now it stands for a life time of punishment by society. Unable to vote in some states, every application is automatica denial, complete and continuous harassment. There are those who are accidental criminals, yet, true high level career criminals live better than those who made a mistake and seek to move on. No one helps them move on, and the state should. I am speaking of course beyond sex offenses, murder and so on. Burglary can get you sent up pretty quick, one can do hard time for tripping your way into “special circumstances.” that changes a sentence from 1 to 5 years.<\/p>\n

No, I don’t want the Con man doing telecommunications for AT&T while in prison, and that’s prison labor, just above slave labor. But if you were stupid and accidently hurt someone at a bar, or lord forbid someone died, one faces a life time of being shunned and menial jobs upon reentering society. I argue that it’s far better to help someone reintegrate into society, than have him use what he learned in 5 years of prison when he gets out.<\/p>\n

Fixing justice has to be on both sides of the judicial coin also. I advocate giving judges the ability to make certain swing decisions, or at least lower the mandatory sentences. The Supreme court agrees, mandatory sentences are becoming a problem, as is adding sentences for crimes that the offender wasn’t charged with. Mandatory sentences were put in by congress because they were trying to be fair in giving out sentences. but there is a dirty secret. The mandatory sentence was on the far high sides, because congress was upset the sentences were weak. It stands to reason, anytime we move to the high-side of punishment we run into constitutional and moral problems. Giving someone with 5 ounces of crack 10 the same sentence, as someone with 10 Kilo’s of Coke, seems pretty outrageous to normal people. It should seem pretty outrageous to you.<\/p>\n

There is ample evidence that making the crime law tougher does not acutally stop crimie, or criminals. Career criminals will always be around, I think it’s time we just stop punishing those who made a mistake. Weeding them out isn’t hard, the trial and circumstances of their crime did that. The three strikes law is lopsided but isn’t unconstitutional, just morally wrong. Caught 3 time stealing a car (without a gun or violence,) that’s 25 to life , kill 3 people, 25 years to life. Which one really is a danger to you and me?<\/p>\n

I’m not a criminal advocate and No one said justice was fair, but it shouldn’t get you coming and going and then 10 years after. I believe in a simple theory: Do your crime, do your (reasonable) time. But I think you should be able to (if you want to ) move on with life and hopefully pick up the pieces without it hanging over you forever and ever and ever. That’s what it used to be, and what it should be again. There is more evidence of rehabilitation working in places in like california where criminals are working in registered companies that employees past criminals doing -real- jobs and gaining real wages.<\/p>\n

At the moment, rare is the option for rehabilitation and that is the true cruelty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. -Abraham Lincoln Back, not so long ago, there was a time when a man did a crime, he did his time, and went on with life. What he did, depending on the severity, was a mistake which he paid for, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[200,202,201],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blubs-of-verbs","category-commentary","tag-crime","tag-cruel","tag-punishment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thestormypresent.com\/ocean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}