Brief Thoughts on Criminal Justice...

For a good read on our adult criminal justice system check out Michele Alexander's book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (click here for an overview). You don't have to agree with all the views to admit that if our country has more African Americans and other minorities locked up now than in the height of South African Apartheid than we have a moral dilemma that must be grappled with. To me that is a problem that we all should explore and policy makers must address. For me it is an enormous human rights issue and based on my Christian convictions cannot be ignored. 

I am a person with strong religious convictions and I believe that since people are made in the image of God they should be treated humanely, even if they committed atrocious acts. This compassion Jesus demonstrated when people brought the adulterer to Jesus in John 8, "Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her." I don't condone any crime and it is the job of the courts to judge offenders based on the facts, but I still have compassion on others and do my best to treat people with human dignity and respect based on the fact that all people are made in the image of God no matter who they are. Even if people are found guilty and serve prison time, they are still people who deserve the opportunity to contribute positively in society. What do you think…?

Reflections on Juvenile Justice from Someone in the Front Lines...

"I am getting 15 years on Monday Mr. Miner" was a statement my student said recently. The student is 15 years old and is looking at this amount of jail time at his young age. On his 17th birthday his present is that he will be woken up, shackled, and then transported to the Cook County Jail and placed in general population of the adult facility that is notoriously overcrowded and the largest county prison in the country. Happy Birthday!

By the way, I try not to pay attention to the cases of my students and I don't watch local news because I teach at a Chicago Public School located in a county temporary juvenile detention center. The students that are on the news will end up in my school and perhaps in my classroom and it is better for me to teach them as a student without bias or preconceived notions. I do know the student who made the comment above is not in jail for murder. Are we rehabilitating Juveniles or abandoning them and letting them be lifetime offenders who will be incarcerated for most if not all of their lives?

Illinois is in the process of changing laws for Juveniles to have them stay in Juvenile facilities until they are at least 18 (see brief here from the Illinois Juvenile Justice Coalition about this law in the process in Springfield). I am not advocating being soft on Juvenile crime. As a matter of fact as a person who teaches and interacts with juvenile offenders daily as well as a Chicagoan who is raising a family within city limits I am definitely for a strong Juvenile Justice system, the question is what is the goal of this system? Is it rehabilitation or punishment? Instead it seems that the system does both at the same time and then ends up with doing neither well. When we figure out that rehabilitation and restorative justice is the goal of the Juvenile Justice system, so that we have less teens becoming adult offenders, we will be heading in the right direction. But by that time my student, who will not be getting out for 15 years, will have already left the system briefly and then returned as a repeat adult offender because our system was not sure if we were punishing him or rehabilitating him. In my opinion I don't think you can do both.