Transcript: Society & The Criminal Justice System

Welcome to social criminologist today’s topic is society and the criminal justice system I am your host Rick Decker greetings from Charleston South Carolina you know ladies and gentlemen we have a lot going on I have struggled for three days to what to talk to you about on the show the last show we talked about PTSD and EMDR and you know I gotta tell ya over the last three decades century our society has changed be with from a society that had institutions to take care of the mentally ill and the cognitive delayed but those institutions were deplorable and Society I have to tell you as a whole and I said this before we shy away from that we don’t understand we hide it lock away and throw away the key that’s what we did with mentally and  cognitively delayed back in the 50s and 60s and 70s today we are using a criminal justice system that used to be restorative and rehabilitative as a tool to Lock away anyone and anything that we do not understand or socially agree with our social behaviors our attitudes our values have changed our prisons used to be rehabilitative they used to be not the best places but at least people were able to get help you know My father spent time in federal prison and that’s where he learned how to be a baker and that gave him hope and that gave him opportunity we don’t have that today.  I know people that have been in prison and when they got out they have spent five years longer some of the longer it being a little make their way in society and find a job our society as a whole keeps punishing people even after they have paid their debt we now have a criminal justice system that when somebody shows up in court prosecutors no longer look at the dynamics of the case they look had an offender assume guilt without the assumption of innocence and start vying  to make a deal while at the same time threatening that if you don’t take this deal you’re facing longer incarceration times because you’re making me work that’s not what they’re saying but that’s the attitude I am talking to you as an experienced criminal defense investigator I saw that happen for years I had had lawyers tell me we’re going before Judge so so because if we go before Judge so-and-so and we lose he’ll pay for it. True story we have prosecutors doing what I call let’s make a deal they’re more focused on their numbers for their bosses who are looking for reelection Numbers of cases that they successfully prosecuted and push through the system do you know that we as scholars have basically no interest in data concerning the criminal justice the People that we help because we don’t.  there was a lady Ted talk whose judgment should be getting a show and I agree with her judges must take the opportunity to look at the dynamics of the case now baseball sentencing mandatory guidelines took that really away from them and said hey you could no longer sentence what you think is appropriate based on the merits of the case you have to follow this matrix and the matrix is terrible;  judges can no longer make the decisions that they used to make they can’t look at a case and say gosh you know this kids from   broken home he’s 22 years old been on the streets and he’s 14 yeah he stole that candy bar and  broke a window now we got to lock him up five years instead of looking at the problem that the kids homeless he has a dependency problem we just lock him up. If Prosecutors slowed their role and took time to look at the merits of the case our system might just get a little better. Prosecutor Foss from Boston Massachusetts talked about how he took the time to do that with one young man didn’t incarcerated found him opportunity got him education ran into him years later and the young man was making more money than he was he had changed his life I would venture to say that there’s not a one of us myself included that is involved with the show or listening to the show that can proclaim they’ve never done anything wrong.  Think about it there had to be  a time in your life where you stole a candy bar broke that window didn’t pay for something at the grocery store took somebody’s property didn’t get caught just in one simple act of weakness and you dodged the bullet and happen to grow up what society considers a normal citizen contributing to society through your acts.  instead of living a life of crime because that’s how our system treats everybody treats everybody that comes to the doors as Al Capone or somebody just as heinous the judge spoke she said that in her courtroom she found opportunity to help people; people came to her looking for solution and hope that she could make her life better and she thought the judges across the country needed to take more time to do that, she had one young lady that stood before her who came for addiction help scared to death after an hour and a half of having somebody talk to her to make her confess telling her that I’ll she to do was say I need help that she wouldn’t go to jail they had an ambulance waiting for her once she saw the light she went to the hospital and is undergoing treatment for recovery today.  our criminal justice system tends to be more mechanical today it has no interest in rehabilitation or allowing people to be effective, constructive contributing members of society our society is focused on revenge and retribution we have forgotten where we’ve come from we have forgotten that we are all like on the ship none of us are really different some of us are better off in society than others a lot of the statistics are extremely clear per capita and not per capita people with Brown color skin have a greater tendency of catching hire sentences than their white counterparts although the data sometimes is skewed because people are miss categorized in the data that you have to kind of look at all that with  a different lens make sure that that’s still what’s happening but you know what after with the data says I see everyday I see people of color being stop question harassed on television and in Public for something that maybe I am a have just like jaywalking if we took the time to make our system better if we’ve restored community programs that allowed to help people on crisis allowed to help people with drug addictions homelessness, you know when I was coming up as a kid there were soup kitchens all of the place now I think here in Charleston there’s one. There are so many things that are missing from our society that used to be here because the government decided they were going to take that money away from the State Intuitions and use it for other functions in criminal justice, better policing, better institutions, jails,   the truth be known out of the money given to all research per $20 criminal justice gets $.13 cents everybody else healthcare other pork belly funds get more ladies and gentlemen our values as society has changed our family dynamics of change people are screaming human rights you don’t want I read over the human rights doctrine and do you know that the doctrine is bias it doesn’t account for everybody as it proclaims there are things in that doctrine that I’ve noticed as a sociologist / criminologist whatever you want to call me because it focuses on society’s moral code Family in our society suffering because Half the kids are growing up without a parent because they’re under some type of probation parole or incarceration. I feel like I’m a broken record here going over and over and you know today like I said the start of show I really just I am spent I don’t know really what to say or what to bring to you.  A few of you have email me and asked me about juvenile justice and I am doing some research on that now and looking into bringing you some history in juvenile justice and our society is angry we are just really angry people it pains me to see his that way the policies that we are creating are inadequate we have a torn society one side wants retribution the other one wants reform and the politicians are just having a hayday doing what they want to do. Our criminal justice system is broken I fear it is a irrevocably broken we need to have a prison system that tasks people for the future helping then get out and get jobs instead of one that just kicks them out and says here you’re on your own without any preparation whatsoever because that’s a big problem you get people that as conditions of the parole they have to have a job be at the get up there they can’t find a job of their PO is obligated to lock them up because they can’t find a job because its their fault its because society makes it difficult for them to find a job. I read as  study from a PhD doctor Dr. in sociology out California a few years ago spent 15 years present for unintentional homicide worked his way through school got his doctorate works for Stanford University he talked about this in his dissertation to where our society continues to punish its offenders and doesn’t even offer and help.  As a criminal defense investigator I was privy to in court information lawyers going at it holding people’s lives in their hands like it was some type of a poker game is not fair to the people that we are charged to represent take care of  because some of those people have issues be mental illness cognitive disability an addiction they have problems they are people they have issues that need to be corrected and that we should be obligated to help but we don’t . I want to tell you think God for young man that I know of in New Jersey Julio Briones he is a consultant prison consultant in fact helps people transition into and out of prison because he did it on his own. It took them two years to find a job no one would give a chance and now he’s one of the most sought after consultants in the country he made his his way not everybody so lucky to be able to do that. Well ladies and gentlemen I want to think the listing and letting babble on I’ll be out here again on Friday I promise I will have a better format for you as always I am on iTunes ,stitcher, spreaker, I heart radio and Tumblr transcripts  will appear in the notes section so those you want to read about it can I can. I be reached at Rdecker PhD at Gmail.com ladies and gentlemen if we don’t get a hold of ourselves and make our society better we are doomed to destruction and chaos let’s leave this world as a wide brush stroke and not as the number two pencil until next time…be extraordinary.