Greetings from Charleston, SC the Holy City, you’re listening the Socio-Criminologist I am your host Rick Decker. Today I want to talk to you about justice and democracy we have to ask ourselves is our system irrevocably broken and doomed to produce further division or our society or is there a means that we can utilize that we’ll balance the system back to fairness and back to the original conceptualization of our forefathers.
Democracy today ladies and gentlemen no longer coincide they differ like oil water there’s a lack of community participation in the system that allows society to distance itself from the criminal justice system we’re leading political elitists’ construct agendas for us we are letting them tell us what our values should be and folks I got to tell you this is not what the forefathers of our country wanted. Early in history communities had control over the citizens, and if unlawful acts were committed it was the duty of the citizens of the community to get together work out a punishment for the crime and enact sentencing; sentencing that fit the crime for the values of that community.
Today we have professionals that sidestep the public rights using coercive plea bargaining tools to increase conviction rates and minimize trials this type of system circumvents our democratic process. A process that allowed not for only the public’s right to participate in trial but the offender’s right to be judged by his peers.
This causes further divide in our society there are things that have happened over the years that I want to get into a little bit they are mandatory sentencing is one but I want to talk about back in the 60s when a price crime and political groups sought after that to get elected and they said listen okay we gotta get tougher communities and take a stronger stance, true that is true, we needed to take a stronger stance.
And that work for some degree but 1986 came down the federal ruling that mandated sentencing on crime. in between that time back in the 70s the government and political elitist stepped in and said hey we need more money to fight crime, so we are going to close community resources that help people rehabilitate back into society and close mental health hospitals because we don’t need that anymore.
The other side of that coin today is that many of the people they’re incarcerated are incarcerated with mental illnesses there’s no place for them to get help locally; emergency departments are flooded with people with mental illness, alcoholism and other characteristics that have no other place to go we as a society allow this to happen our forefathers thought enough to know and understand that we the people had our values our morals and that we should control the people in our community and that our views and attitudes should trickle upward into government and not trickle downward to be told what are attitudes are we have lost balance in the criminal justice system by allowing Community resources to be closed.
We have lost control and balance with mandatory sentencing and three strikes out. Let me give you some statistics since 2010 one out of every 28 children has a parent behind bars this is up from 1985 where it was one out of every 125 children, in 2009 approximately one out of every 31 adults in the United States was under some type of correctional control being incarcerated, being supervised in the community of probation or parole as compared to one out of 77 during Pres. Reagan’s time mandatory sentencing has undermined our social structure of family and fairness I agree people to commit crimes to incarcerated well not necessarily incarcerated but punished; okay but these longer terms have caused more children particularly children of marginalized populations to be without parental influence that could’ve benefited have had that parent available to them.
The mandatory sentencing and three strict laws were constructed to keep the worst of the worst off the street is really constructed to get the kingpins of drugs out it hasn’t worked. Our family units are being hindered any sense guidelines, 95% of the people that are incarcerated today are able to be retrained and return into society they don’t meet criteria it was originally thought of for three strikes and mandatory sentencing we have chosen to lock away anybody that violates a social construct instead of offering them rehabilitation.
We are causing greater social and economic problems by keeping breadwinners out of the home we are causing generational welfare because we want to take a stronger stance on crime and we are incarcerating the wrong people. We have to make a change we can’t keep doing criminal justice the way that we’re doing it.
Ya know I gotta tell ya scholars people in my position they have masters, doctorates, and, going on to have doctorates we don’t know what to do either we are divided just as much as we the people and I got to tell you it is up to we the people make the change well that’s go on alright what has changed? Well talk about that mandatory sentencing is a systematic failure and needs to be eliminated the implementation of this ruling took power away from the judges forcing them to incarcerate based on the law not based on the merits of the case this ruling also took the power went from judges to use their best judgment in what was best for the defendant and the community it eliminated things like extenuating factors that could be have caused this behavior like mental illness or cognitive disability our current system lacks transparency and lacks accountability to the public.
There’s a strong divide on the topic reform ladies and gentlemen if reform comes crime rates will increase and we will be back at the beginning retributive justice has caused overcrowding of local, state, and federal institutions it is culpable for the destruction of the fall of local economies convictions translate into individuals who are being punished beyond sentence prohibiting them from participation in many social groups and social programs that help the needy and helps them gain employment once they’re out.
Are you aware even though people pay debt to society there are only probably about 100 employers that will employ people with felony not very many when you look at the per capita of our society in scheme of things we are causing collateral damage in our families because of our arrogance and wanting to sweep the drug dealers and anybody that commits a crime or violates our social values off the street and lock away the key forever.
I want to bring up a good point about this if you think I’m wrong research this in the state of South Carolina if you have a cognitive disability and you create an event for part of an event to where you are arrested because somebody such committed a crime…let’s use a real life situation I know young man that has autism was harassed in school and bullied, the school wouldn’t listen to the parents because the school said will your son doesn’t complain he was subsequently arrested and charged if it hadn’t been for his father taking on his cause having some experience in the law this young man would have been locked up and how the state of South Carolina does it is if you cannot comprehend what you did was wrong and why they institutionalize you until you can, which means for somebody that has autism could be the rest of their life without due process ladies and gentlemen without due process put that in your cap to think about.
This is the type of criminal justice system that we are allowing in our society because we have closed the community programs that help people like this survive we have also eliminated programs for those that have been incarcerated, to be rehabilitated when they come out into our society again people if you commit a crime when you go to prison and come out you are forever punished for your past works no matter how well you did or how much you have rehabilitated.
I have a friend up in New Jersey he understands this more than anybody else I’ve ever met my life because he was incarcerated his name is Julio Briones he is also a podcast announcer on an ounce of prevention. This young man has put the criminal justice system to shame in my opinion because he was given one of these long sentences based on circumstances, a sentence he didn’t deserve he went into prison and decided he wasn’t going to just sit there he wanted to do something he educated himself and behold he was able to get his sentence reduced he spent his time; finding a job finding housing has been difficult for him but he has prevailed he has also created his own podcast a business where he consults, lectures, and guides people in crisis he has done what we wanted to have done in the first place which is rehabilitate people and let them be them be who that can be when they get out he has created his own new identity but yet in some situations he is constantly reminded of his past deeds in my mind this man is one of the most honorable men I’ve ever met in my life and I’m telling you if you have a crisis in your life be it a parent be it a son or daughter or friend going to jail, a parent that’s aging who is dying or with Alzheimer’s you don’t know what to do what you need to get in contact with him.
If you want his information just email me at RDeckerPhD at Gmail and I’ll give it to you. His podcast is on the same channels as I am it’s called an ounce of prevention he has written books and is on Amazon about crisis and I am proud to call him a colleague and a friend. Alright ladies and gentlemen if you have any questions or comments about we talked about today I would appreciate an Email as always you can follow me on YouTube Instagram Facebook and now tumblr I’m on there as well iTunes, soundcloud, I thank you for listening it’s important that you listen subscribe and share my show I cant make this work without you, I am grateful for each of you for listening as I always say I don’t care what you do just whatever you do be extraordinary at it believe in yourselves ladies and gentlemen carpe diem.
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