The United States’ rate of incarceration is the highest in the world, higher by 50% than that of the second highest: Russia. The nation and the states are heavily in debt, and prisons are a part of the cost. Prison reform has got to be a part of the conversation, not only because it is expensive, but also because the question of justice has to be answered.
The prison system has become a means by which vengeance is executed, not justice. In many cases, the victims are convinced they cannot have closure until they have “justice,” by which they mean vengeance. In other cases, the government executes “justice” in order to exact vengeance itself, without regard for what the victims may actually want or need. In fact, the actual victim has been replaced by the government, who sees itself as the victim in need of vengeance. Some crimes, for example, are defined in a way that the victim cannot refuse to press charges because the government will do so anyway. While in other cases, the victim has the right to refuse to press charges.
In discussing prison reform, it is worth noting that the number of violent crimes per 1,000 people is less than half of what it was forty years ago. Yet, the number of people incarcerated has increased. Much of this has to be because of the drug war. Violent crimes have decreased, the number of homicides has decreased, yet the number of incarcerated has increased. What lands a person in prison has certainly changed, and at least part of that has to be the drug war. Prison reform can come most easily by simply changing the drug laws. This doesn’t have to mean that we are calling evil good. For more, see this article, “Why Drug Decriminalization is Central to Liberty.”
To a lesser extent, the prison population is made up of another group of people who should not be there: debtors. In 1833, Federal law prohibited debtor’s prison practices at the Federal level, leaving it to the states. Many states followed suit and banned the practice at the state level as well. Yet the courts still send people to prison for indebtedness. The work around is that they charge the prison with contempt of court for having failed to pay their debt. The prison sentence is for contempt of court, rather than for debt. The practice is, prima facie, ridiculous. How can someone imprisoned for debt ever be in a position to pay the debt?
In addition to bad laws putting people in prison, and at an increasing rate, there are also bad judgments for it. Conservatives generally want people imprisoned for justice’ sake. These people need to pay for their crimes: restitution. Liberal generally want prison to be rehabilitative. These people need to learn not to be criminals through education: rehabilitation. If it is really about justice, though, then how on earth can the system work to exclude any legitimate concept of mercy? Justice and mercy are not mutually exclusive, whatever our law-gospel distinctions might teach us. Countries like New Zealand have begun practicing what is the much more biblical concept of restorative justice.
In restorative justice, the offender and the victim are brought in to face one another. The victim is given the opportunity to communicate how he was hurt, how this affected him, and how he feels toward the offender. The offender is given the opportunity to apologize, even to explain. In the end, the two parties–within certain guidelines–agree upon a suitable punishment for the crime. If the punishment is not carried about by the offender, he becomes subject to stricter punishments imposed by the state. With few, if any, exceptions, the system has worked well to bring about real closure for the victims, and a sense of justice that helps to restore the offender to society when he has completed the punishment.
It is not too different from the biblical system of justice described in the Law of Moses. It was ultimately up to the victim to choose whether to pursue justice and to what end. The nearest relative would have to pursue the offender in the case of murder, sometimes chasing him all the way to a city of refuge. The victim would have to take the case to the judges and to seek compensation. And in all cases, the victim and witnesses had to execute the punishment–not a nameless, faceless state punishing on “your” behalf. You had to engage the offender yourself. For all of our desires for justice and vengeance, it is much harder to pull the justice without mercy trigger when you have to do it yourself. In biblical law, the system was designed to move the people toward mercy in ways that the American system is not. Just laws and a system of justice that includes mercy are what are needed for true prison reform.
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