Paradigms of Social Justice and Obligation

III. Criminals lose all rights

    Crime and punishment are where State and individual collide, preparing the path for future relations between all individuals. Parole considerations demonstrate a common attitude towards criminals; their "good" behavior, attitude, socially proper beliefs, and caprice of the public determine parole granting. Severe bias against former prisoners occurs thru-out society, from personal suspicion to restricted occupations - predisposing the criminal to more crime. The loss of civil rights begins immediately upon suspicion of crime. Abuse, discomfort, loss of privacy, disruption of living, and even extended imprisonment await the innocent suspect. Depending on his race, sex, wealth, previous record, and attitude, he or she may then be convicted and sentenced! If imprisoned, as a spate of recent court decisions shows, he loses nearly all remaining civil rights: censored mail and visitations, strict and arbitrary "discipline", loss of choice in diet and lifestyle -- he cannot even refuse psychoactive drugs! Even out of prison, the parolee now "can choose" between probation, community service, medical operations, drug treatment, or electronic tagging.

    Not much sympathy is usually reserved for criminals; "they deserve to suffer any legitimate punishment". This attitude may well be the root of the problem. As ever more behavior is criminalized, the guilt and shame - the deserved suffering - spreads to encompass all of society. The national per capita incarceration rate has nearly doubled in the past 10 years while the National Crime Survey shows crime rates decreasing about 20%. [U.S.Stat.Abst] The so-called "law and order" mindset has also led to the malignant growth of over-criminalization. [Richards] For example, in 1987, (traditionally) victimless crime accounted for 16% of arrests, 30% of federal convictions. Drug laws alone sent 58% of about 17,000 people to prison from US District courts, [U.S.Stat.Abst] and 8.6% of 486,000 to state prisons. [Criminal Sourcebook] Those who eagerly press for punishment and suffering really don't care what purpose it serves. Once the purpose was to compensate victims and rehabilitate, but American-style justice accomplishes neither while it is based on fear. [Fraction of re-imprisoned prisoners is greater than 3/4ths.] America's prison/probation system amounts to a massive segregation policy - out of all countries, exceeded only by South Africa and the Soviet Union. Raising penalties to deter crime is a vicious cycle with marginally diminishing results, and political hay, inspiring still greater penalties.

    The trend toward preemptive justice complements the loss of rights by criminals, spreading coercion into all spheres of life. The movement to imprison pregnant women who might abuse drugs and harm their fetus joins the two trends together. The controversy encapsulates the forces shared by increasing coercion: political expediency and the rhetoric of virtuous beneficence, exaggerated risk, "social good", and irresponsibility. Indeed, a reliable sign of yet more coercion is the use of the word "responsibility", which distracts attention from the punishment to the punished. Conveniently then, the blame for both some tragedy of life and the inevitable failure of government policy to fix it is restricted to the victim.