Run Sheet
02/01/31
Well I'm really disgusted.
The lead story in the newspaper this morning was one about a fellow that had been arrested right here in town. He had sold a kilo of cocaine to an undercover cop in Detroit. He had done it thirty years ago and had skipped bail. He ended up here and has been living here since.
He is a respected member of the community and is a volunteer basketball coach in one of the local high schools. He has been a good, law-abiding citizen of this community and country for thirty years. He has made great contributions to our community in the form of guidance of our youth. He has set a good example and by all accounts has done more than his bit to make our corner of the world a better place.
Today he was arrested. He was finally hunted down and arrested to be taken back to the US to complete his sentence.
Now I ask you, what is the point?
Firstly, let me set down my background. I made my living for longer than I care to remember as a federal corrections officer. I was a bull, a guard, a screw. I worked in a maximum security penitentiary with the worst of the worst. I have no sympathy for a con. I made my living making sure that they stayed inside the fences and I was willing to kill them dead if I needed to.
But y'know, I always tried to remember that the whoe purpose of those institutions is one thing, one simple purpose. It is not to punish. The purpose is to rehabilitate the inmates. I'm no fool. I know that most of them are carreer criminals and have no intention or interest in rehabilitating. They see nothing wrong with what they do and how they do it.
The guy that got arrested this morning has lived here for thirty years. He has worked hard and honestly, he has raised a family. He has contributed to the community and the youth that will take over this community as we grow old and die. This fellow has given more to our ton and country than he took.
He has rehabilitated himself.
Now they're taking him back to Detroit to serve his sentence. I'm sorry, but I see no point. If the purpose of the corrections service is rehabilitation, then the objective has been met long ago. It would appear to me that the purpose of this is solely punitive, for punishment only.
Last time I looked, the purpose
of punishment was to teach a lesson, and change behaviour. At least that's
how it worked when I was a kid, and that's how it works now that I'm a
parent. Where is the logic behind carrying out punishment after the lesson
is learned and the behaviour is changed?