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Part 97: The Cost Of Lawlessness:
April 5, 2004:
It is impossible to look at law in America, or anywhere else, without considering why we have and need law. To be sure, given a society of ethical people with equal opportunity for all, no laws would be necessary nor would a law enforcement community be needed. Given that, I will offer this personal view of law enforcement. The creation of an internal police force by any society is a confession of failure by that society.
The fact that we have laws and we have a law enforcement community means we have failed. For sure, we do not have a society of ethical people. We are not even close. More importantly, we do not yet offer equal opportunity to all. We have done better in that regard in recent years, but our history is abominable. We cannot fix history. Attempts to do that always create more problems than they solve, but we can act to create equality for the future.
For the record, as to creating more problems only a fool would still argue that affirmative action is working. It is not working because it happens too late in the game. It only bogs down our system by putting unqualified people into positions where they cannot possibly be effective. To create a true situation of equal opportunity requires that we start with children right out of the womb. By the time kids get to elementary education, it is already too late to start.
The lack of nurturing in the formative years will cause a formidable lost of emotional and intellectual energy in the young child. Perhaps that could be overcome, but the resources required to do it would be massive. In our society, those resources are simply not available. So the kids start out, through no personal fault, as losers. They start out being cheated.
It may seem reasonable to ask, who is at fault in that? I will submit it does not matter. Fixing blame will not fix the problem. In addition, the fault is not that simple to assign. The causes are historical and embedded in our culture. To simply blame the parents of the kid ignores the cultural and historical background. So, let us give up trying to fix blame and look to solutions. I have addressed these issues in my child welfare essays. Basically it requires proactive intervention to protect and nurture children.
This will take a long time and it does not address the problem of our dysfunctional adult population. However, it is still necessary to begin. As to the adult population, affirmative action, if we attempt it, must be accompanied by honest efforts to train the people for the positions. Only then may they have a chance of being effective useful contributing citizens.
It is very important to assure equal opportunity for ethical reasons alone. However, the theme of this essay is about some of the cost of not offering equal opportunity. I am addressing the issue of the cost of lawlessness. Let's look at two startling facts. Police maintenance is a major part of the budget of every government in America and prisoners comprise more than 1/2 percent of our total population.
This is not a number out of my hat. These are facts reported by ABC evening news on August 12, 2001. About 2,000,000 people are prisoners in this country. That's what the nightly news said. That's 0.5 percent of the whole population, one of every 200 people. This does not even count the people in local lockups. What does this mean? It means our culture has failed. Criminals do not happen. Criminals are created. there are multitudinous causes, but lack of equality is high among them.
Here is another startling fact. What the state of Michigan spends to keep a criminal in prison is $27,000 per crook per year. Now try to guess what Michigan spends on primary education. Don't guess, I'll tell you. Michigan spends somewhat less than $7,000 per student per year, about one fourth of what we spend of crooks. That is on average. In some very rare very wealthy districts, the schools are much better funded. Now, be honest. That is a crock of Crap! It should be the other way around. We all know that.
Let's realize that $27,000 per year for each prisoner is just a small part of the cost of crime. We must also consider the enormous cost of law enforcement. The Michigan state police alone will be funded at over $400 million in 2004. This does not include the numerous sheriff departments, local police departments, and private police and guards.
Now, add to that the massive financial losses to individuals, business, and insurance providers caused by criminal activity. In addition we have the injuries to humans and the incalculable lose of human life. Let's also consider the debilitating cost of fear, folks afraid to go out on a sweet summer night, afraid to let their kids out anytime. By any rational measure the cost of creating ignorant criminal adults is untenable. The cost of producing an extremely large criminal population is beyond measure.
Let's get clear on what this is about. We do not need to incarcerate people because they are bad. We lock crooks and murderers up because they are a threat to the stability of the community. The community needs stability to survive and prosper. That is why we are in such deep trouble now. Our communities are unstable because too many of our citizens have gone mad. No one feels safe now because we have too many criminals at large.
We cannot just talk about equality when we have this massive criminal population. We must also do something about that. Regardless of cost and regardless of how they got that way we must incarcerate criminals. We have got to begin punishing antisocial behavior and rewarding community enhancing behavior. We must punish bad behavior be it a con-man, a senator, a robber, or the postman.
Antisocial behavior is not just about the blatant criminal acts like robbery. It also includes accepting pay and refusing to do the work that was paid for. It includes writing dishonest laws that allow groups of people to behave dishonestly with no fear of punishment. It includes having civil service rules that make it impossible to dismiss people who refuse to do their work. It also includes executives who break the law. Regardless of their station no one should be immune to punishment. No one should be immune to the law.
We have too many examples of people who have escaped the proper application of law. One which comes up often is plea bargaining. It is becoming a major issue. Criminals are walking away free or getting light sentences on plea bargains. It's crap. We should go to court and prove our case regardless of cost. We should never make deals with criminals. We should never use one criminal to convict another one. We should never give any concessions to a known criminal. We should insist that the police do their job and prove their case. If criminals refuse to testify without a deal, they should be charged with obstruction of justice.
Now, about the cost of keeping people in prison we are spending way too much. Mrs. Gaffer is to the point. She says, people in prison should not have any more living space that a serviceman on one of our submarines has. I have some personal experience in that. I was on the troopship USS General Howse for about three weeks going to Korea. I had 14 inches of space between my bunk and the guy above me. I survived. I did not commit any crime. Why should a guy in prison be better off than that?
I think I have just grazed the surface of the cost of crime
in America, but it gives us an overview. The truth is, we cannot
afford it. The disruption of commerce and normality is too costly.
The debilitating effect on our emotional health and stability
is too much of a burden. We simply cannot sustain it. I think
we must act in all ways possible to reduce our criminal population.
For sure, nurturing our children and creating equality will help,
but we also need to look to more effective law enforcement. I
will get into that next.
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