Justice, Justice shall you pursue!
Jan. 31st, 2006 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pocket1_pitaI did want to address the Criminal Justice System for a moment. The legacy of racism in this country is pervasive and institutional. If you are poor and your skin is brown, you have a much higher chance of being arrested in the first place. Once you are arrested, you have a much higher chance of going to jail, and you have a much higher chance for a harsh sentence and a higher chance for the death penalty. Not in every circumstance, but in most cases. There are always unintended consequences to policies even good policies. When those break down so clearly across racial lines, it’s our responsibility to try to address that. Unless you think that the reason the racial demographics are so troubling is because brown-skinned people are more like to commit crimes. Which I do not believe.
In my family we have some people who have spent some time on the wrong side of the law. Like any immigrant family, we were very poor. My cousins came to this country and some of them worked hard and colored inside the lines and got good grades and went to college and send their parents money every month etc. One or two struggled with English and making friends and eventually made the wrong sort of friends and got involved with drug dealing and gangs and guns and the criminal justice system. My uncles came here and most of them worked hard for years and years and eventually managed to put enough by to send their children to college and then die of exhaustion. One or two saw opportunities on the wrong side of the law and ended up doing jail time for non-violent crimes. But no one is a bad seed or completely unlovable or without the possibility for rehabilitation or redemption. I don’t believe for a second that my cousins and uncles who made bad decisions are bad people. They are poor people. They don’t have any money and they are alienated from the system so they don't see any value in reinforcing it’s rules.
I heard a Catholic priest who works with the urban poor – junkies and criminals and murderers and dealers. He was being interviewed by the TV reporter and the reporter said – “So you believe in giving people a second chance?” and the priest said – “When did any of these men get a first chance?” and that struck me as completely right. If you look at the individual lives of any of these numbers of people who are incarcerated or in the criminal justice system in another way, you will see extreme poverty and desperation and violence in their lives. Not everyone who is abused will be an abuser, but we acknowledge that the likelihood is increased. Vets who come back from Iraq have an increased likelihood for PTSD. Just under half of them will have this disorder which is stress-related and has to do with the way that the body and the brain handle it when you go through trauma. Doesn’t it seem reasonable that if you grow up around gunfire and violence and see your friends murdered in front of your eyes and know that the police never ever help you that you might develop antisocial and violent psychological problems that are treatable? If a certain percentage of people react to stress and trauma in an antisocial and violent way, doesn’t it seem like a good idea to try to address that in ways other than incarceration? Aren’t these people worth helping?
In my family we have some people who have spent some time on the wrong side of the law. Like any immigrant family, we were very poor. My cousins came to this country and some of them worked hard and colored inside the lines and got good grades and went to college and send their parents money every month etc. One or two struggled with English and making friends and eventually made the wrong sort of friends and got involved with drug dealing and gangs and guns and the criminal justice system. My uncles came here and most of them worked hard for years and years and eventually managed to put enough by to send their children to college and then die of exhaustion. One or two saw opportunities on the wrong side of the law and ended up doing jail time for non-violent crimes. But no one is a bad seed or completely unlovable or without the possibility for rehabilitation or redemption. I don’t believe for a second that my cousins and uncles who made bad decisions are bad people. They are poor people. They don’t have any money and they are alienated from the system so they don't see any value in reinforcing it’s rules.
I heard a Catholic priest who works with the urban poor – junkies and criminals and murderers and dealers. He was being interviewed by the TV reporter and the reporter said – “So you believe in giving people a second chance?” and the priest said – “When did any of these men get a first chance?” and that struck me as completely right. If you look at the individual lives of any of these numbers of people who are incarcerated or in the criminal justice system in another way, you will see extreme poverty and desperation and violence in their lives. Not everyone who is abused will be an abuser, but we acknowledge that the likelihood is increased. Vets who come back from Iraq have an increased likelihood for PTSD. Just under half of them will have this disorder which is stress-related and has to do with the way that the body and the brain handle it when you go through trauma. Doesn’t it seem reasonable that if you grow up around gunfire and violence and see your friends murdered in front of your eyes and know that the police never ever help you that you might develop antisocial and violent psychological problems that are treatable? If a certain percentage of people react to stress and trauma in an antisocial and violent way, doesn’t it seem like a good idea to try to address that in ways other than incarceration? Aren’t these people worth helping?
