Posted on 04/01/2005 10:45:30 AM PST by kiki04
Crime and Moral Retribution by Robert James Bidinotto 30 March 2005
What is "justice?" What is "crime?" And what should a criminal justice system be doing?
John Evander Couey had a criminal record of 24 arrests. He was designated a sexual offender by the state of Florida after a conviction for an attempted lewd act on a 14-year-old in 1991. But he was soon out on the streets again, and on probation for a DUI when Citrus County probation workers began overseeing him in October 2003. Couey violated probation Aug. 8, 2004, when he was arrested on a minor drug charge. For that, he simply got more probation. For violating his DUI probation, the judge sent him to jail for 59 days.
When Couey got out of jail last fall, he didn't check in with probation, as required. The probation office sent notices to his last listed address. The notices werenft answered, so officials arranged for a violation of probation warrant on Dec. 2.
But that was it. Nothing happened to him. Nobody did anything to lock him up. The system of probation accountability was so lackadaisical that the fact he was a registered sex offender didnft even show up on his records.
(Excerpt) Read more at intellectualconservative.com ...
from the article..
The prison superintendent, a self-described "liberal," told me that he tries to make the prison experience for inmates "as much like the street as I can." At one point, he referred to them as his "clients," adding: "Inmates aren't evil, by and large. Many just did not have good life circumstances, and have reacted inappropriately." He concluded: "The public needs to know that modern corrections is not like a Jimmy Cagney movie."
That is an understatement.
-Should our courts and prisons focus on deterring crime through draconian punishments, or should it try to prevent them by addressing the alleged “root causes” of crime, such as poverty, broken homes and other social conditions?-
Problem is, lefties don't know how to fix those problems, either. They facilitate it.
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