Civil Rights vs Justice

I thought I’d rather have a victim instead of criminal justice system and then realized it would change our thinking to a person is guilty until proven innocent; I like our premise that a person is innocent until proven guilty. But, I do have a problem with people thinking the lives of criminals are worth more than the unfortunate or military. I want to remind people that criminals receive food, clothing, housing, an education, medical care and exercise equipment for life while the working or homeless are given none of these things for free. Many working people never get to travel, go to gyms or college. So, I wonder what freedoms besides the freedom to roam and vote do they lose when incarcerated as they seem to have a say in small things such as wanting creamy, not chunky, peanut butter and recently a Michigan inmate filed a lawsuit because he was denied porn. Prisoners had Facebook accounts until they were recently stopped (American born inmates convert to Islam/Muslim beliefs and try to harm us when they’re released). With all the money being spent to fight terrorism I don’t want prison money going to expand an inmate’s change in religion so this is a good reason to take the internet away. Life in prison must be good; recent statistics showed 40% of criminals go back to jail (a California parolee was caught trying to break into Folsom Prison). I don’t know if it’s still allowed but prisoners were getting conjugal visits that resulted in Welfare babies (kudos to Rikers Island for giving smocks in 2011 to any visitor coming in scantly clothed in order to reduce sexual arousal). There are people who have been convicted of committing horrendous crimes and from a biblical standpoint we should do as God has instructed and rid the earth of evil. I believe these people to be murders, rapists, those that maim, continual abusers, those that steal identities as they destroy lives (more than 8 million people were victims of identity theft in 2010), cyber-bullies whose actions result in a life taken and child molesters or pornographers. I’m also considering Wall Street crooks like Bernie Madoff who received a 150 year sentence which should equal death (I’ll talk about criminals of a lower caliber in a different blog). We should remember that a consensus of ordinary people is required before someone is convicted of a major crime. We all know how hard it is to get a few people to agree on anything so getting several people to agree is next to impossible. And we know people can be threatened or bought in order to upset the apple cart. So, if we keep such a requirement and a person is found guilty, there should be no doubt about using the death penalty and a sentencing hearing would be unnecessary. (It would really be wonderful to have a computer program to eliminate the jury and any possible discrimination, tampering, and/or questionable verdicts.)

I remembered that Oprah said forgiveness comes when you can give up the hope that you can change the past. I thought about this and I’m assuming that most people actually know or still have hope that they could have raised their child better, voted for the death penalty, testified against a criminal or changed some other aspect of what occurred. I don’t know where people expect ex-cons to go when their sentences are up. If people truly showed criminals forgiveness they wouldn’t be disturbed by early releases of inmates, repeat sexual offenders living in their neighborhoods, having ex-cons as next door neighbors or by hearing the stories of ex-cons who commit another crime (2011 a Michigan ex-con went on a shooting rampage killing his daughter, another child and 5 adults before killing himself and in October 2011 a Connecticut paroled burglar was convicted of killing a woman and her 2 daughters). Our current system allows for plea bargains and in most cases the victims and/or families are not informed prior to such being made. A couple of such cases are: a child molester was given probation and didn’t have to register as a sex offender and a child molester in New Mexico was released after serving 1 ½ years of a 12 year sentence because he found God. In this second case, the perpetrator contacted the victim upon his release and ended up back in jail. I know these deals are made to save money but that doesn’t mean justice is served. If we want to save money, implement and use the death penalty and don’t give child molesters a second chance; that belongs to the victim and his/her family as the molestation often takes away their lives. On February 22, 2012 a 39 year old female Georgia teacher was given the toughest sentence so far; 20 years in prison and 20 years of probation for sleeping with a 14 year old boy.

People must know that from an economic standpoint that the money saved could be used on other things or to balance the budget of governments. But, it’s not all about government and taxes. More importantly it’s about us being a decent society. We need to be tougher on criminals if we are to get a more civilized society. Good Americans should not be worried about who is breaking into their houses, stealing their things and family. If only the worthy were left, politicians would be made up of deserving souls; honest people leading this country without bias. Whether it is from the bible or some show I watched the message is the same, we must use fear and pain to stop evil. Civil rights groups need to get out of the prisons and jails and we need to go back to the old ball and chain if we want to change the benefits of being in prison and improve our lives.