What About Them?

24. October 2009 by Rev Young.

I have been pouring over the many articles and reports concerning Juvenile Justice Reform today and I finally came to one conclusion…..we need change.  Not just the legislative changes we have been working toward, not just the reform to our criminal justice system and judicial system, not just changes in our prison systems but a sweeping change of minds. 

I have always been a great student of history.  Most people wondered why in the world we spent so much time studying the history and actions of countries, governments and individuals.  Most people failed to see the purpose or relevance.  I have always found history fascinating.  If you follow history you can find dramatic changes in our social order, social behavior, governmental structures, belief systems, education, medical advances…..it is all charted out in our history as people. 

You also have the opportunity to look at the failures and mistakes of cultures, leaders, countries and governments.  Why would we want to know that?  So that we do not make the same mistakes over and over and over again.  We should learn from the mistakes of others and our own mistakes.  That is the greatest gift that history can give us. 

But we haven’t learned much.  We allow poverty, oppression, slavery, racism, brutality and injustice.  Those problems have been inherent in this country since it’s inception.  As a matter of fact we find it throughout the world everywhere in our historical studies.  There are some countries who have had more success than we have, in dealing with these issues.  There are countries in this world that have placed more value on human life than we have.  Yet we claim to be the watch dog of human rights and human rights violations.

If you study the history of prison, courts, criminal cases, judgement and condemnation in this country, we have a pretty dark history.  Our Quaker and even Puritan beliefs caused us to condemn people (men and women) for the smallest infractions.  For instance, defiling the marriage bed would bring a sentence of whipping and 1 year in prison.  The second time the same person committed this infraction they were hanged.  We moved on from these brutal times to ones of incarceration.  Early prison history is smeared with stories where those held, had to barter for clothing, food, restroom privileges and guards would sell liquor to those housed at a steep price.  When those conditions were reformed, prisons became work farms.  This was a very good idea and plan as the earnings from these jobs paid for the prison facilities and also gave the inmates a nest egg for their families. 

We have improved our conditions of confinement compared to our historical patterns, but there is one thing that has not changed, our condemnation. 

The original punishments set in this nation came from the principle “an eye for an eye”.  We established our punishments according to this standard.  We wanted revenge, we have a history of vigilantes and mob’s that would raid jail cells and take matters into their own hands.  We were violent and murderous……to those that committed crimes.  We inflicted on the “criminal” the same violence they committed on someone else and we were justified.  We justified our actions by the revenge we held in our hearts and no one held us accountable.

We still do this. 

Our prisons are full of people that we are angry at.  We are taking revenge on people by confining them in prisons, separated from human touch, sound, light, sun light, purpose and forgiveness.  We have never been able to move past revenge to forgiveness.  If you do not see this then realize that even after a person has served his/her term in prison, the mark is forever placed on the record of their life.  Forever.  We don’t ever let them pay for their crime and move on.  Their infraction is recorded……and never stamped paid in full. 

Our laws and practices currently condemn children, women and men equally.  We start with the 1st grader who brings his cub scout knife to school and is immediately escorted from the property and expelled from school.  We take youth, who make terrible mistakes and decide that they have no worth to the rest of society and we sentence them to live out their lives in prison…..a sentence of death.  We take women, separate them from their children and condemn them and their children to a life of persecution.  We take men from their families and put them, their families and their future in bondage. 

We have not changed.  We have not come to realize our vindictive nature.  We have not learned the human side of our nature.  We make mistakes, we are a product of our environment and we have times in our lives when our emotions, our needs and our addictions over ride our common sense. 

What do we need to change?  We need to first look at ourselves and realize we are not perfect and we have made mistakes, yet when the sun comes up tomorrow we have a second chance……a chance to make things right.  What about them?

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