Post Fifteen

Hard Times: Part Nine

For my final post about my prison experience I would like to share some of my opinions and observations based on my own personal experiences combined with my professional education and research. 

"Criminal Justice" is an oxymoron.  Like the military, the justice system likes the use of such phrases to make things that are incredibly dangerous and violent sound innocuous.  During the Cold War our military and political leaders loved to name our nuclear weapons things like "Peacekeeper".  Even the War Department's name was changed to Department of Defense to better reflect a non-aggressive stance.  Something soft and yummy like Momma's apple pie.  Like this example from the military, the American criminal justice system is loaded with contradiction and hyperbole designed to make us all think we are doing something wholesome and pure.  And while I would say that the goals of both the American military and justice system are noble on the highest levels the tactics that are used in our name have strayed so far from a pure intent as to jeopardize the whole system.

A Call for the Decriminalization of Drugs

Prohibition was probably the single best example in American history of a policy with good intentions creating something that was ultimately disastrous on so many levels as to be laughable.  The sheer arrogance that drugs are any different from alcohol is really becoming an untenable argument on so many levels.  Almost every month we are seeing law enforcement busting down doors, terrorizing families, and even shooting the family's dog all in the name of seizing a couple of joints.  These actions are not only unconstitutional but brutal in their approach.  Thomas Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave.

In the end, there are two organizations who benefit from illegal drugs.  The first group would be the drug cartel and street level dealers who make billions of dollars off of tax-free, illegal drugs.  The violence that results from rivals killing each other is getting to the point of where a real war is actually being fought and lost by law enforcement; the Mexican drug war on our southern border has killed over 30,000 people in the last few years.  Our inner cities are rife with violence and hopelessness as the only way out for most of these kids are gangs and the drug money that goes with being in one. 

The second group who benefits is law enforcement.  The amount of money spent fighting drugs is enormous and totally out of proportion to the success they provide.  The DEA has become the modern version of the Treasury Department during prohibition.  While individual agents are risking their lives going undercover in the drug world the billions of taxpayer dollars that flow into the bureaucracy is itself criminal in it's waste.  However, each year we pour more funds on a local, county, state, and federal level expecting a different result.  Short of throwing the Constitution out the window and the creation of a police state we will never, ever be able to "win" this war.  I would much rather be free than to see the means necessary to eliminate drug use from the street level (the elimination of the right against unlawful search and seizure and warrantless arrests are two things that would be necessary, at the very least).

Finally, I can tell you from personal experience that putting drug users and dealers in prison is a doomed method to cure the drug scourge.  I can't tell you how many "1 Year and 1 Day" prison sentences I seen handed down by judges for a violation of probation due to using or selling illegal drugs.  These felons are put into the system with some of the most violent people on earth.  What comes out after a few months with these wonderful blokes as your cellmate is not a rehabilitate drug user, but more often than not a violent, hardened criminal.  He or she will most likely be back in and out of the justice system for the rest of their lives.  From a cost standpoint it is very expensive to house these felons in state and federal prisons.  Compared to county jails the cost of housing these prisoners at the state and federal level is much higher, and to what end?  It just blows my mind.

Our country is broke.  A major source of revenue would be the legalization of drugs and the high taxes that could be placed on their sale.  If only some of this money generated would go towards rehabilitation and prevention you would see a much more positive result than throwing these people in prison.  Drug use, in my opinion, would go down instead of up.   

Should we legalize all drugs tomorrow?  No.  We should start with marijuana as a trial balloon.  If libertarians like me are wrong, then by all means, go back and make it's use and sale illegal again.  We can't continue on our current course, in any event.  Even if you disagree with me you would have to admit that the War on Drugs in it's present form is a war we lost a long time ago.  It's time to try something radically different.  Let's come up with a capitalist solution to the problem, and put these drug dealers out of business tomorrow.

Prison is for Violent People

Non-violent crime, the two most common examples being theft and drug use, should never be punished with prison sentences.  You must understand that prison is an incredibly violent place.  If your intent is to rehabilitate the criminal you will be sadly disappointed.  I had many inmates who were on their 5th, 6th, and 7th prison stretches.  Rehabilitation is one of those things that liberals in classrooms talk about in theory, but never once have these pinhead professors spent one day working inside a hardcore prison.  Their theory is so wrong it makes my head hurt.

My solution would be to house only violent offenders in prisons.  If you murder, rape, or molest you belong in prison for the rest of your life.  If you commit armed robberies as your career of choice you belong in prison for a very long time.  If you love to beat people up for fun, you need to go to be housed with others who feel the same way.  Too often, our prison system takes a non-violent person and makes the person into a hardcore, violent criminal on their eventual release.  The reason for this is primarily borne out of necessity.  Like a cynical Sergeant once told me, "You either fight, or f#$%."  While crass, this statement is very true.  Prison for inmates is very much Lord of the Flies; might makes right, the weak perish, and the sheep are slaughtered.  What do you think would happen under those conditions?  Violence in prison is not merely a symptom, but a way of life.  A state of existence.  A reality.

Sex Offenders Should Go To Hell

So much for my objectivity.  While I am very open minded about drugs, I am the polar opposite when it comes to sex offenders.  There is not a single worse person on the planet than a child molester.  I have known hundreds, and consider this chilling fact.  For every one of those creatures I had the misfortune of knowing personally they were responsible for molesting, on average at least one hundred victims.  Victims whose innocence was taken from them in the worst possible way.  I am not God, and I am generally a pretty non-violent guy for the most part.  But I have no use for this filth.  Life in prison is the only legitimate sentence.  They should never see the light of day again.  There are exceptions, such as statutory rape.  Why our system of justice doesn't distinguish between these "criminals" and a child molester is another problem.  Believe me, there is a huge difference.

In Florida, we have a facility for sex offenders called the Jimmy Ryce Unit.  It is not under the auspices of the Department of Corrections, but the Division of Children and Families.  Basically, a battery of mental health professionals evaluate a sex offender before his release.  If they deem him irredeemable, then the inmate is sent to this facility under an involuntary, indefinite, civil commitment.  I think this is basically a good idea, but flawed in it's execution.  Why not just make certain types of sex crimes life sentences?  No need for an expensive, separate facility that has absolutely no business being outside the FDOC's supervision.

The Death Penalty is Broken

This is a tough issue for me.  For many years, I was as pro-death penalty as one could get.  However, I have had a change of heart.  For me, it's a question of morals.  I am pro-life.  I do not believe in the early termination of a pregnancy as a form of birth control.  It's wrong, and I would never support it.  How, then, can I play God and say it's within my rights to take your life?  Evil for evil is a losing proposition.  And if you think I am some lefty fruitcake from the 60's consider this:  a lifetime in prison is no vacation in paradise.  In truth, I would much rather be taken out and shot in the back of the head then spend the rest of my life behind bars.  It's that bad, people.

If we were to look at the death penalty objectively there are two major arguments for it.  One I can reject on an intellectual level, and the other on a moral level.  The first argument is that the death penalty deters crime.  It doesn't, folks.  I never once had a person who had been on death row tell me that because he would be executed that was reason enough for him not to do the crime.  Murder is something that is in the heart, and premeditated murder is something that comes from the soul; a very dark and black one.  Once you have committed yourself to such a path nothing will deter you.  Certainly not years waiting to be executed.

The second argument is that the death penalty is justice served.  What people are really saying is that it's a legal lynching.  It's the most honest argument for the death penalty, and one that I can relate to on a personal level.  If my family had been brutally murdered by someone I can't say for one second that I wouldn't love to see the perp drawn and quartered.  Is it right, though, and does it jive with a moral philosophy of behavior?  No.  So we must surrender to the better angels of our nature, love the sinner, and make sure he is as uncomfortable as possible serving a hellish time behind walls for the rest of his life.

Conclusion

I realize these are hot-button issues, and I am well aware of the counter arguments.  I respect them.  These opinions are expressed from the heart, but also derived from actual experience.  I wouldn't tell an NFL quarterback how to throw a ball into coverage without first being able to relate on a practical level.  Working in the justice system for almost a decade, along with 5 years of schooling, does give the basis for an informed opinion beyond the norm.

Does that mean I am always right? Heck, no.  Your morality may not be mine, and I admit that I could be wrong.  To err is human.  I would hope, though, you would consider these arguments with an open mind.  At the very least, I hope these words provided a spark of thought in the grey matter.  In the end, that's all a writer can ask for.

I hope you have enjoyed this nine part series of "Hard Times".  Till next time...