Criminal Justice

I'd like to make the statement, "Any time anyone is convicted of any crime it is a failure of the criminal justice system."

Then, I'd like to offer an explanation, which will be long.

There are several theories that are passed around as to what the criminal justice system is supposed to be. I suspect that most people don't even think about it, so politicians can get away with almost anything.

The first theory is that criminal justice is an organized form of revenge. This is the theory used when the first President Bush said, "Some crimes are so heinous that they call for the death penalty." That is, some crimes are so bad that the proper revenge is the death penalty.

This is a very non-Christian point of view. After all, Paul says, "Vengeance is mine, ... saith the Lord." That is, a Christian cannot call for vengeance and still be following the teachings of the Bible.

A second is that the punishment is repaying something called a "debt to society." The problem here is properly stated in the movie Ocean's 11. When Ocean said he had paid his debt to society, his ex-wife noted that she had not gotten a check.

The third, and my preferred theory of the criminal justice system is that it is to cut down on crime. We pay good money for the system, and this is the only reason I would want my money to be spent on it. After all, if it is for vengeance, why not let the people who want the vengeance pay for it? Why should I, as a poor man, have to pay money for vengeance that is requested by a rich man, who can afford to pay for his own vengeance.

Similarly, if it is a "debt to society," then why should I be paying? Let "society" pay for it.

But one thing is obvious about this last theory, and that is that statement I began this essay with. If someone is convicted of a crime, then the criminal justice system did not prevent crime, and, therefore, failed.

I've seen statistics quoted that indicate that, seen in this light, our criminal justice system is not working, and is getting worse. That is, rather than reforming the criminals who get sent to jail, most end up honing their trade (crime) there, so the rate of repeat offenders is quite high.

This causes me to think that perhaps we need to re-evaluate our system. Perhaps many laws could be eliminated, since they really don't cause any problems. (Almost any activity that one could do when they are alone at home should probably be legal,. Why should I pay to rehabilitate someone who isn't causing me, or anyone else, any trouble?)

I'd rather pay for a criminal justice system that has some chance of working, rather than continuing to pay for a systematic revenge.