THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA

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Volume V, Issue # 95, April 5, 2003
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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CRIME, PUNISHMENT, & REHABILITATION: THE PROBLEM OF RECIDIVISM
By Carl F. Worden

Prison recidivism. Big problem. Simple resolution, if you will only accept it.

If we keep persecuting those who have been formerly convicted of felony crimes after they have been released from prison, denying them jobs that can sustain them and their families, they will predictably return to criminal behavior that pays more.

It's a no-brainer.

When a convicted felon has served his or her time in prison, they should be granted full reintroduction into society without any further restrictions. That is the only way that we, as a society, can give them any chance to will fulfill their responsibilities. It is the only way that we, as a society, can assure ourselves that those formerly convicted will have the chance to rehabilitate. However, we're not doing that.

When a felony convict is released into society, they are denied the right to vote, the right to possess firearms, and the right to provide for their families in an adequate way. They have served the prison sentences imposed on them by the courts, but, when released from prison, they are still subjected to punishment, being persecuted for the rest of their lives.

We cannot continue to do that. It is morally wrong.

In our Wild American West, prisoners released were given their guns back, as they left the correctional facility. They had a new chance at life. Today, prisoners released face a public life of continued condemnation for acts that they very well might regret, but cannot reverse. Is that fair? Is that the way God intended? No. The answer is NO.

People will be people. They will screw up. We punish them accordingly and justly, but once that punishment is applied fully, they should be allowed the opportunity to reenter society with a free slate. If we continue to persecute them for things they did that they cannot go back and reverse after serving their sentence, why did we release them? Was it just to punish them further? Isn't that just a sadistic act on our part?

What is this? Why is this? Why have we become such a mean-spirited and un-Christian people?

I recently did a very unscientific poll of friends on this very subject. They told me it depended on the crime the person committed! The individual served the time given by the judge, and they still insisted the individuals continue to be punished if the crime committed was heinous.

Granted, a heinous crime should be punished accordingly, but in the environs of the judicial sentence imposed. As members of American society, we have taken it upon ourselves to continue to punish the former convicts beyond the punishment imposed by the state, subjecting them to punishment in the form of continued denial of basic rights and opportunities in a free society. That should not be the case, but it is.

If we subject these individuals to continued persecution in the form of denial of employ- ment opportunities, they will revert to criminal activities that will manifest themselves against the best interests of society at large, thus turning the gun on ourselves in the form of continuing criminal behavior that will further victimize us.

Repeat criminals in a free society should be locked up for all time. I have no problem with that. But we are creating an environment for the prisoners released to funnel them- selves into yet another criminal enterprise by denying them the opportunities the rest of us have. In doing so, we are creating, whether by design or not, an environment in which the released prisoners will predictably stray from the law once again.

And then we wonder why we have such a high recidivism rate. Only the brain dead fail to understand the concept.

More on Criminal Justice Policy Issues


Copyright 2003 SierraTimes.Com


Reprinted with Permission of SierraTimes.Com
Reprinted from SierraTimes.Com
March 3, 2003

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