Education Over Force: Dealing With Criminality

What is a criminal? Is a criminal someone who has simply broken the law? Most of us have driven over the speed limit at one point in our lives, does this mean that we are all criminals? Or are we only criminals if we were caught breaking the law?

I would assert that a criminal is someone who has committed a 'crime' and in order for there to be a crime committed there must also be a victim involved; property rights must have been violated. But there are many laws on the books today that seek to criminalize victimless crimes, prohibiting behavior that should be a decision which rests with the individual.

The war on drugs for example: a complete and total utter failure by every measure. Several decades later though, and after trillions of dollars has been spent, we still haven't learned our lesson it seems. But ask any criminal justice expert what they think about the war on drugs and an honest one will tell you that it's nothing more than a farce of a money-pit. Law enforcement officers themselves have turned against the cause and now many root for a more peaceful alternative.

The answer to the drug problem that many people suffer from isn't to lock them up in cages and forget about them. That has never proven to reduce recidivism or help in healing addiction. It only costs society more in the long-run by using their funds to keep these individuals detained.

In 2014, it was estimated that at least 50 percent of the inmates in federal U.S. prisons were there over drug-related offenses. And roughly 53 percent in state prisons.

After an individual has spent a considerable amount of time behind bars, for what might have been a victimless crime involving a plant, many are then branded and face even more difficulties once they are released. For many of them, thanks to their new record, it's hard for them to find a job and a place to live, making it all the more difficult for them to survive and less likely that they won't be right back in jail in the future.

It is very easy to look at the label 'criminal' and to judge a person and decide that they don't deserve help, but I think that the way we can improve things is by deteriorating the stigma surrounding that label. Maybe if we fought harder to understand and feel empathy for these individuals, rather than rushing to hate and judgment, we might see some more effective solutions brought about.

Education is the key to criminal reduction, rather than pure force and punishment.

Mandatory minimum sentences and "getting tough on crime" has proven to be ineffective and only helps to mushroom the prison population and increase the cost that society must pay over the ordeal. It's a lose-lose situation when we decide to mindlessly cart people away to prison over crimes that don't involve any victim. And even in circumstances where there are victim(s), victim-offender mediation and other restorative approaches have proven far more effective than the blind power-trip model.

The "get tough" approach has failed to reduce crime any further and has instead facilitated a well-oiled machine that cycles millions of individuals through the criminal justice system on a regular basis. This then makes those individuals more dependent on public services rather than learning how to be productive and responsible citizens on their own. It's a cycle and a system of failure, one that continues to cost billions of dollars and breeds dependence.

The United States is spending billions of dollars every single year on the criminal justice system and they aren't getting a good return for that investment. And when it comes to the likelihood that those released from federal prison will end up back there again, the chances are around 65 percent. Our continued focus on control and punishment then is obviously a shortsighted one. The evidence over the years has clearly shown the ineffectiveness of our approach, it's time that we learn from our past mistakes.

pics: pixabay
source:
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Prisons_and_Drugs
http://time.com/4088836/prison-drug-crimes/
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/2009/05/15/better_to_be_smart_than_tough_on_crime.html
http://www.ucobserver.org/features/2012/06/crime/