--- Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> My general stance on incarceration is not as simple
> as you present
> it, but that's no surprise. What I have said
> repeatedly (when I'm
> not fending off your accusations of being soft on
> criminals et. al.),
> is that there is something wrong in a country that
> has so many people
> incarcerated, that the system is in serious need of
> reform, and that
> criminal justice is wrongly used as our default
> system for dealing
> with social welfare problems. The consequences of
> that are
> devastating to convicts, their families, and their
> communities and
> the ripple effects are damaging to all of us.
>
[WS:] I pretty much agree with the above, albeit your postings do not always convey that message. My main objection against incarceration as a "default response to social problems" is that it is a powerful agent of socialization into the criminal social networks and subculture, and thus promotes rather than inhibits further criminal activity. In other words, it makes society worse off, not better off.
However, while I think that incarceration for petty or nonviolent offences is counterproductive (per the above) I do not think that much social damage would occur if Paris Hilton spent some time in the big house. She is not in any danger of being socialized into criminal networks, and indeed her relatives do not face eviction etc. Furthermore, if she did not serve time, this would send a wrong message that if you are rich and a celebrity figure, you are off the hook. So for these reasons, I say lock her up.
One final comment, although I do not think that incarceration is a solution to social problems, I am not sure that there are any viable alternatives to it.
I do not think there is much that can be done to solve these problems, at least in a short run.
This impotence is very troubling, people like to think that there is something that we could do about problems that threaten us as society. Incarceration, like magic rites, at last creates an illusion that something is being done , and that buys many people some peace of mind.
For that reason, opposing incarceration is like opposing religion. You can deploy all the logical arguments against it, but people simply will not buy them, because doing so would rob them of their illusion of safety and being in control. It is a lost cause in my opinion, just like trying to presuade people not to go to church and not to believe in god.
Wojtek
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