Revisiting justice – drug dealers, sociopaths and other “undesirables”
For many years, I have involved with the judicial system in a variety of roles: consultant on prison reform in New Jersey, working as a Chaplain and counselor in a prison, working with individuals who have been in prison or who are now in prison, and as a so called expert witness in court cases. I have frequently studied and written about the fact that here in the United States (as well as some other countries) we incarcerate an increasing number of people for long periods of time. The prisons seemed to have replaced our state mental health hospitals which often were used as warehouses rather than state of the art treatment centers. We know that the prison recidivism rate is high, that the cost of prison is staggering, and that the only benefit is the temporary illusion that punishing “the bad people” will make for a safer society. Not a day goes by, or so it seems, that I do not hear a call to increase the prison time for people committing certain crimes. In fact, much of what I hear in the United States does not seem distant enough from the policies of the current president of the Philippines.
At the same time, I am acutely aware that it benefits no one if I just criticize current practices and do not come up with concrete, more effective recommendations. Yesterday I wrote about the need to get honest with myself about my biases about people, situations and such concepts of justice if I am to earn the right to offer an opinion about the next step in addressing some of these issues.
Serendipitously, this week’s podcast of On Being is the conversation that Krista Tippett had on December 25, 2016 with Gordon Hempton the acoustic ecologist – a collector of sound all over the world. He “is founder and vice president of the one Square Inch of Silence Foundation based in Joyce, Washington. His books include One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Quest to Preserve Quiet, co-authored with John Grossman, and Earth is a Solar Powered Jukebox: A Complete Guide to Listening, Recording and Sound Designing with Nature.”
Mrs. Tippett quotes Mr. Hempton as saying, “He defines real quiet as presence – not an absence of sound, but an absence of noise.”
Later in the interview Mr. Hempton says:
“…I had been paying a lot of attention to people, but I really hadn't been paying a lot of attention to what is all around me. It was on that day that I really discovered what it means to be alive as another animal in a natural place. That changed my life. I had one question and that was how could I be 27 years old and have never truly listened before? I knew, for me, I was living life incredibly wrong, so I abandoned all my plans, I dropped out of graduate school, I moved to Seattle, took my day job as a bike messenger and only had one goal, and that was to become a better listener.
Although Mr. Hempton is often talking about the external noise one invites into one’s life, in order to listen one must, of course, silence the internal noise which prevents one from listening to oneself as well as to all parts of nature including other people.
Mr. Hempton suggests that hearing is one of the primary skills that humans possess. He maintains that blindness is less of a handicap than deafness. We know, of course, that blind people learn to function amazingly well by sharpening their hearing ability. Those who are deaf rely more on their sight, but their experience of the world and how they process that experience in their brain is greatly altered – perhaps more so than the blind person.
I am fully aware that we must train ourselves to become selective to what we attend whether that be via our sense of sight, hearing, smell or taste. Some of the earlier hearing aids did not allow one to filter noise and, thus, did not work well in a public place where they might be a lot of people or other noise. The person not could hear the voice of the person(s) whom they were attempting to converse with because of the other noise.
That having been said, even without particular deficits, most of us humans do not know listen well. We are frequently busy planning our response even before another person finishes speaking. I have been in professional training sessions in which I and my colleagues were tested on our listening skills. On the whole, even this group of people who are paid to listen did not do well. For the most part there is so much noise going on in our heads that we have a great deal of trouble hearing. Even when we are attempting to honestly listen to ourselves we do not do well. It is difficult for most of us to let go of the preconceived notions or biases. We all have more than one voice in our brain but our habits of thinking or our habits of believing what we have previously learned is very powerful. These formerly internalized truths limit our ability to identify biases and to consider new, creative solutions.
Thus, my first task in exploring new approaches and potentially creative approaches of dealing with those whose mental illness or other conditions lead to violence and other illegal acts is to accept that my biases will make this very difficult. I must allow for the possibility that many of my perhaps dearly held beliefs about both the cause and the solution are not accurate or workable.
The first task then is to begin to list what I think I know or what I have previously accepted as the truth. These include:
The next step is to take each one of these internalized “truths” and enlist the help and knowledge of others to access the evidence for or against them. The bottom line is that we/I must become more scientific in our approach. That means that we always begin with the null hypotheses – the assumption that there is no relationship between behavior X and assumption Y.
For me and I think for us a community this approach would be a good place to start – not a comfortable place but a more effective place.
Written December 30, 2016
For many years, I have involved with the judicial system in a variety of roles: consultant on prison reform in New Jersey, working as a Chaplain and counselor in a prison, working with individuals who have been in prison or who are now in prison, and as a so called expert witness in court cases. I have frequently studied and written about the fact that here in the United States (as well as some other countries) we incarcerate an increasing number of people for long periods of time. The prisons seemed to have replaced our state mental health hospitals which often were used as warehouses rather than state of the art treatment centers. We know that the prison recidivism rate is high, that the cost of prison is staggering, and that the only benefit is the temporary illusion that punishing “the bad people” will make for a safer society. Not a day goes by, or so it seems, that I do not hear a call to increase the prison time for people committing certain crimes. In fact, much of what I hear in the United States does not seem distant enough from the policies of the current president of the Philippines.
At the same time, I am acutely aware that it benefits no one if I just criticize current practices and do not come up with concrete, more effective recommendations. Yesterday I wrote about the need to get honest with myself about my biases about people, situations and such concepts of justice if I am to earn the right to offer an opinion about the next step in addressing some of these issues.
Serendipitously, this week’s podcast of On Being is the conversation that Krista Tippett had on December 25, 2016 with Gordon Hempton the acoustic ecologist – a collector of sound all over the world. He “is founder and vice president of the one Square Inch of Silence Foundation based in Joyce, Washington. His books include One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Quest to Preserve Quiet, co-authored with John Grossman, and Earth is a Solar Powered Jukebox: A Complete Guide to Listening, Recording and Sound Designing with Nature.”
Mrs. Tippett quotes Mr. Hempton as saying, “He defines real quiet as presence – not an absence of sound, but an absence of noise.”
Later in the interview Mr. Hempton says:
“…I had been paying a lot of attention to people, but I really hadn't been paying a lot of attention to what is all around me. It was on that day that I really discovered what it means to be alive as another animal in a natural place. That changed my life. I had one question and that was how could I be 27 years old and have never truly listened before? I knew, for me, I was living life incredibly wrong, so I abandoned all my plans, I dropped out of graduate school, I moved to Seattle, took my day job as a bike messenger and only had one goal, and that was to become a better listener.
Although Mr. Hempton is often talking about the external noise one invites into one’s life, in order to listen one must, of course, silence the internal noise which prevents one from listening to oneself as well as to all parts of nature including other people.
Mr. Hempton suggests that hearing is one of the primary skills that humans possess. He maintains that blindness is less of a handicap than deafness. We know, of course, that blind people learn to function amazingly well by sharpening their hearing ability. Those who are deaf rely more on their sight, but their experience of the world and how they process that experience in their brain is greatly altered – perhaps more so than the blind person.
I am fully aware that we must train ourselves to become selective to what we attend whether that be via our sense of sight, hearing, smell or taste. Some of the earlier hearing aids did not allow one to filter noise and, thus, did not work well in a public place where they might be a lot of people or other noise. The person not could hear the voice of the person(s) whom they were attempting to converse with because of the other noise.
That having been said, even without particular deficits, most of us humans do not know listen well. We are frequently busy planning our response even before another person finishes speaking. I have been in professional training sessions in which I and my colleagues were tested on our listening skills. On the whole, even this group of people who are paid to listen did not do well. For the most part there is so much noise going on in our heads that we have a great deal of trouble hearing. Even when we are attempting to honestly listen to ourselves we do not do well. It is difficult for most of us to let go of the preconceived notions or biases. We all have more than one voice in our brain but our habits of thinking or our habits of believing what we have previously learned is very powerful. These formerly internalized truths limit our ability to identify biases and to consider new, creative solutions.
Thus, my first task in exploring new approaches and potentially creative approaches of dealing with those whose mental illness or other conditions lead to violence and other illegal acts is to accept that my biases will make this very difficult. I must allow for the possibility that many of my perhaps dearly held beliefs about both the cause and the solution are not accurate or workable.
The first task then is to begin to list what I think I know or what I have previously accepted as the truth. These include:
- Punishment per se is not an effective change agent.
- Many cases of mental illness can be effectively treated.
- Treatment is long term more cost effective than long term incarceration.
- Addiction to some substances and some behaviors is treatable although it is a chronic illness and requires repeated treatment.
- Those accurately diagnosed as sociopaths and psychopath may not respond well to treatment regimens currently available.
- Sexual addiction is also a chronic condition which may require repeated treatment.
- Those diagnosed with conditions such as pedophilia do not historically respond well to treatment.
- No one consciously decides to be an addict or to be mentally although some people may make decision which trigger active addiction or other conditions.
- Manufacture of equipment and facilities for prisons is an enormous and very profitable business. One might say that addiction to money gained as a result of high demand is addictive.
- Treating those with a prison record as second class citizen does not lead to individuals having a steak in creating a safe, non-violent community.
- There are those who are “hardened” criminals by the time that they are teenagers and who are not amenable to treatment. They also harm treatment staff. Fear may, at times, be an appropriate response to certain individuals.
- Society condones behavior if it is determined to be for the good of the community and condemns the same if it is not considered good for the community. Crime is determined by community standards and not be behavior per se.
- We know very little about why sexual crimes are both so frequent and frightening and, thus, so harshly judged.
- Money can buy justice in many cases, but not all.
- Individuals may have conditions which make it impossible for them to consider the needs of others or allow them to care about the effect on others.
- Current laws protect freedom of some even when it puts the sick person or others in danger.
- Miracles are possible – many people can change and many are treatable even after years of anti-social behavior.
- Programs such as Homeboy industries in Los Angeles are effective for many.
- Work of Father Greg Boyle who began Homeboy Industries and that of Dr. Gary Slutkin (treating violence as a contagious disease) needs further study and possible implementation.
- Conditions such as drug abuse addiction are systematic diseases.
The next step is to take each one of these internalized “truths” and enlist the help and knowledge of others to access the evidence for or against them. The bottom line is that we/I must become more scientific in our approach. That means that we always begin with the null hypotheses – the assumption that there is no relationship between behavior X and assumption Y.
For me and I think for us a community this approach would be a good place to start – not a comfortable place but a more effective place.
Written December 30, 2016
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