Criminal Injustice - The Need For Reform

The call for criminal justice and prison reform has been building momentum for years.  Those who have experienced our system of justice and the resulting incarceration know first hand the state of disrepair our country is in.  We have witnessed the violations of personal and constitutional rights.  We have witnessed the mistreatment of human beings who are currently in prison. 

Many people will justify this moral decay with “if you can’t do the time then don’t do the crime”.  Those that make these kind of statements should count themselves lucky that the mistakes they have made were not brought to the attention of authorities and did not end in prison sentences. 

I believe that we, as advocates, have done ourselves and those we advocate for a grave injustice by not being blatantly honest about the current conditions of communities, education, criminal justice systems and corrections systems.  We have tried to play the political game and used the appropriate phrases so as not to “offend ” anyone while we tried to gain their support.  This has not been productive thus far and I do not believe it ever will be.  The first statement that must be made to all of the die-hard legislators that continue spouting tired rhetoric about the current laws that incarcerate youth for outrageous sentences is that “WE HAVE BEEN DOING THIS YOUR WAY FOR 20 YEARS WITHOUT POSITIVE RESULTS.  IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE!”  “IF THE ANSWER TO JUVENILE CRIME WAS ADULT INCARCERATION, WE WOULD HAVE SEEN THE IMPACT IN JUVENILE CRIME RATES AND INCARCERATION RATES.” 

JUVENILE CRIME IS ONLY A SYMPTOM OF A MUCH DEEPER PROBLEM THAT STARTS IN OUR COMMUNITIES AND THIS COUNTRIES COMMITTMENT TO IT’S CHILDREN.

I will say that there are some candidates and government officials that are finally seeing the connection between the lack of funding and attention given to early childhood education and intervention and the rise in prison populations.  This is called the school to prison pipeline.  Yes there are really reports and statistics that give this information and they use the failure of children in elementary school to predict how many prison beds they will need for the future!  They are actually preparing for these young children who fail and LOOKING FORWARD to their entrance into prison!  If you think I am mistaken about this, please click on the video link and see for yourself.  This video is from a candidate for the Virginia Governor’s seat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Yeprm-Z8U

If you want further information then I ask you to follow this link and it will give even more information concerning the issue of education funding and early intervention.  http://www.smartoncrimesolutions.org/Special%20Education%20Concerns.ppt

In the state of Colorado, education disabilities are not categorized as a disability requiring intervention and treatment.  For instance if your child is dyslexic or diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, he/she will not receive the intervention that can train them at an early age, to overcome these disabilities and become successful students.  If you are having difficulty keeping up with your studies and your classmates, you develop an identity of yourself.  You see yourself as a failure and you begin to actualize this belief.  This starts the negative self image and the resulting behavior problems. 

When are our children going to become the focus of this nation?  When are we going to realize that they are the future of this country and therefore our most precious resource?  When are we going to be willing to stop our self- indulgent behavior long enough to grab the hand of a child?  They have been given to us as a responsibility and a charge.  How they turn out and who they become is a result of our investment.  Apparently we have not invested much.

This entry was posted on 10. June 2009 at 11:46 and is filed under Prison Reform Advocates, Juvenile Reform Advocates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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