Consequences

This is an interesting word. What could it possibly mean?  My understanding is that there is a reaction for every action.  Merriam-Webster defines it as “something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions.”

Every day all of us probably break some federal, state or local law. We are a nation of laws.  How many laws is anyone’s guess.

In an example of a failed attempt to tally up the number of laws on a specific subject area, in 1982 the Justice Department tried to determine the total number of criminal laws. In a project that lasted two years, the Department compiled a list of approximately 3,000 criminal offenses. This effort, headed by Ronald Gainer, a Justice Department official, is considered the most exhaustive attempt to count the number of federal criminal laws. In a Wall Street Journal article about this project, “this effort came as part of a long and ultimately failed campaign to persuade Congress to revise the criminal code, which by the 1980s was scattered among 50 titles and 23,000 pages of federal law.” Or as Mr. Gainer characterized this fruitless project: “[y] one will have died and [been] resurrected three times,” and still not have an answer to this question. (Blogs.loc.com March 12, 2013 by Jeanine Cali)

The above article is referring to federal laws.  Consider the following.
Politifact.com

Ron Paul says 40,000 new laws were "put on the books" on the first day of 2012

By Meghan Ashford-Grooms on Friday, April 27th, 2012 at 4:12 p.m.
A quick Google search led us to the likely basis of such a figure. In a Dec. 27, 2011, press release, the National Conference of State Legislatures said U.S. states and territories passed more than 40,000 bills and resolutions into law in 2011. Yet, the release also said, laws do not always take effect at the start of a year.

For juveniles there is also what is called status offenses. 

Juveniles and Age ("Status") Offenses

A number of activities are deemed offenses when committed by juveniles, because of the their age at the time of the activity. These are called "status" offenses. Examples of status offenses include:

◦   Truancy
◦   Possession and consumption of alcohol
◦   Curfew violations, and Purchase of cigarettes. (Criminal.findlaw.com Juveniles and Age ("Status") Offenses)

I have previously written about punishment and why I do not believe that the research supports its use if the goal is to change behavior. Yet, in an article in the St. Petersburg Tribune on July 29, 2015 an esteem colleague reported on a recent Polk County Grand Jury (Florida) report stating that the state’s rehabilitation model relies too much on a nurturing philosophy and not enough on strong discipline behind bars (page 1 and 9).  Ms. Kathleen Heidi, a mental health counselor and criminology professor at the University of South Florida said “the report was spot on…I agree in spirit with all the recommendation…There have to be boundaries and there have to be consequences.”

The implication is that the current system which focused on rehabilitation and which has reduced the recidivism rate from 46 % to 42 % is not working.   Earlier I had heard a report on NPR that although fewer juveniles are being put on probation instead of being incarcerated, they later incarcerated because of relatively minor probably violations.

A more careful study of various adult and juvenile institutions in the United States reveals various levels of care and attempts at rehabilitation which cost up t $60,000.00 a year in some states. Pay for workers can also vary a lot. In the privately operated facilities in Florida for juveniles the above mentioned article indicated that many are paying their “front-line staff between $8.00 and $10.00 an hour” out of a total contract amount of “$40 million over a five year stretch to run the Highlands Youth Academy in Florida.   For a corrections officer the Bureau of Labor reports the median pay is $39,970 per or $18.74 per hour

The bottom line is that a lot of lives are affected (experience a consequence) by our current system of so called justice.  This includes:

·      Those adults and juveniles who are charged and found to be guilty of a crime.
·      Families of those charged with crimes  - emotional and financial affect.
·      Attorneys and other employees of law firms/offices.
·      Judges and other employees of the court
·      Maintenances of court facilities.
·      Probation and Parole officer and expenses for their offices.
·      All the employees of a prison or jail.
·      Those who supply equipment, clothes, vehicles and other supplies to prisons and jails.
·      Weapons manufactures
·      Social workers, counselors, therapists and physicians who treat offenders, family members and victims.
·      Pharmaceutical companies owners and employees.
·      Direct or contract employee who build and maintain jails, prisons, etc.
·      Victims of criminal activity.
·      Local, state and federal law enforcement

I have undoubtedly left off some people or group of people. The bottom line is that we are all affected by the current system, which seems in the United States to increasingly rely of a myriad of laws and a systems, which directly and indirectly affects all of us.  As I have also previously mentioned, the United States continues to incarcerate more people per capital than any other so called developed nation and continues to have a higher recidivism that other so called developed nations.

Everyone seems to agree that the system is broken. Some such as the Polk County Grand Jury advocate more punishment. Some advocate diversion program.  A few, such as Ron Paul, advocate fewer laws.

It seems almost everyone is in favor of insuring that people who get caught and convicted of breaking the law pay a consequence or price. One of the problems is, of course, that we are all paying the consequence of the current system.   Occasionally there is a realization that the alleged offense is no one’s business. Thus, some laws have been changed or eliminated.  In most states individuals are not being locked up for possession of small amounts of marijuana while in others it is legal to sell and purchase marijuana.  Formerly homosexual acts were a criminal offense as they still are in some countries. For every law that we have eliminated, it seems we have added a host of new ones.   For example, if one is a single parent working a minimum wage job and fall asleep while caring for your child and the child wanders outside you are likely to be charged with child neglect at the very least. If lucky a neighbor might still notice that one needs help and not report one, but all too often you will be reported or charged. 

One could list the possible offenses for which one could be charged.  For example the woman was did not want to get out of our car when stopped for a minor traffic violation recently and went to jail certainly had not intended to break. Of course, there are serious offenses, which we do need to address as a society.  What I am suggesting is that we could entertain the possibility we could often redefine the problem(s).

For example, a few years ago there was an experiment offering a philosophy class of a group of homeless people. The goal was to invite them to explore the fact that one can learn to think differently about one’s approach to problem or one’s life journey overall.  The program was successful for many.   It was not successful for everyone.  Acute mental illness, addiction and other medical conditions needed to be effectively treated. 

My point is that just saying as the Grand Jury members and my esteemed colleague did that there needs to be “consequences” is not very helpful.  There are consequences for every behavior.  Of course for those “caught” and convicted the current thinking often is that the consequence needs to punishment. The thinking seems to be that the person does not know or care that they committed a crime, but if they know and the consequence is punitive enough the person will change and want to do their best to not break the same law at least. (I have already established that it is impossible not to break some law.) The problem is that that if a person is not able, for whatever, reason to care about themselves or others, we need to address that lack of ability to care – often a sense of hopelessness or disconnection.   We can continue to spend billions of dollars on making people worse or we can begin to redefine the problem and then explore solutions.   The problem, according the professed religious beliefs of most is not that some humans are less then or worthless.  From my understanding of a Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim perspective all of us are worthwhile.  Many of my Jewish friends would agree.

For those people who do need to be in a secure place would it take less money if they were treated with dignity and respect? Perhaps? This would also be a relatively small number compared to the group we now incarcerate and/or on probation or parole.

Let’s have some dialogue about consequences but let’s do with the loving knowledge that we are potentially talking about all of us. Let’s wipe the slate clean so to speak and approach the issues as “we” issues and not issues about them and us. It may sound simplistic but instead of a nation of laws perhaps we need to be a nation of neighbors.