On Criminal Justice and Its Reform

Our criminal justice system in the United States is broken in more ways than one. It is broken in so many ways that it needs a literally complete overhaul from the ground up. One way that it is broken is how we view that it should work. We rely on the classical theory of deterrence which is an archaic method that dates back to the 18^th century. It's far too simplistic to truly be effective in our incredibly complex world. Deterrence focuses on preventing people from doing illegal activities by implementing certain, swift justice on criminals. The line of thinking is “crime feels good so enact a pain response to prevent people from doing it or have them learn not to do it again”. It's straightforward but that's the problem. People commit crimes for a myriad of reasons from ignorance of the law, to necessity, to spur of the moment, and so on. We need to address these issues instead of just issuing out punishment and hoping that they “get the message”. In order to move away from this line of thinking, we need to do the following:

First things first, end the “War on Drugs”. Seriously. This is the most ineffective thing enacted as it only keeps drug addicts in jail and not as productive members of society. Not only this but it is an absurd waste of money. Colorado had legalized marijuana and now they are rolling in money from the taxes on marijuana alone. Their profits are around one billion (with a “B”) dollars per year. This isn't including money saved in tax payer's money by keeping people out of prisons for being caught with an ounce.

Next, we take that money that is gained and redirect it to drug rehabilitation for addicts. This doesn't mean that we're keeping drugs illegal. Just as we have Alcoholics Anonymous (last I checked, alcohol is legal) we should have the same for those who are addicted to substances and want to break their habit. Currently, our rehab programs are garbage. We need actual professionals who can help individuals instead of babysitting them for a few weeks and sign paperwork saying that they did their twelve step program and found Jesus.

Also, we need to open up community centers for youth in problem areas, typically the high poverty ones. High poverty equals high crime. When a young person's safety is threatened, they will do all they can to make sure to counter it. Churches should also be involved in providing a safe space as well as mentors for kids. It would also benefit if community service officers were part of these programs. We hear so often how police officers end up killing whatever suspect they engage with and I believe it is because of this lack of connection.

Nothing is perfect and I don't expect changes to happen overnight nor be fixed overnight. People are still going to commit crimes, when they do, we need to stop dehumanizing them. We can't just rationalize any abuse that may happen to them by guards or other inmates. We also need to work on rehabilitation of these criminals according to their crimes and, also, overseen by professional social workers. Whether it's domestic violence, shoplifting, rape, or anything else, we need to find a root cause. Nothing happens without reason.

Not dehumanizing felons also extends to when they are free to rejoin society. They should be able to vote, find work, and have a home without being blocked at every corner (within reason). Treating these people like some Untouchable caste only increases the rate of recidivism. It's basically a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you treat someone like they're subhuman then they'll eventually act like it. This happens with people who are abused, especially children. Leave justice to the criminal justice system. Anything else is just petty vengeance for something that most likely did not affect you in any way (unless you are a victim personally).

There are more ways that the justice system needs to be redesigned but these I believe are the major things that we need to work on as a society. What we currently have does not work. Things can change and sitting on our hands and saying “it will happen anyway” allows our current state to continue and eventually implode. If we do nothing, if we allow abuse and apathy run rampant in our society, then we deserve the consequences.