There is a diabolical twist to American society that has, strangely, received little attention. On the one hand, we raise children with little discipline and we allow them the freedom to be virtually as wild and unruly as they please. Then when they become adults we suddenly require rigid adherence to a mountain of harsh laws with very severe penalties for the most trivial of indiscretions. It is like training for tight-rope walking by crawling through a sandbox!

After the provision of security, food, and shelter, the primary function of parents is to prepare their children for the adult environment. That's what other animals do and that is what we should do. But we totally miss the mark in preparing our children for being adults in the harsh legal environment we have today.

The American criminal justice system that we prepare our children to live in is probably the cruelest, most unfair, and least compassionate of any of the major countries of the world today (we have at least 6 times the incarceration rate of the other "Free World" countries!). While our system may not match some of the totalitarian regimes of the past for torture and the taking of life, it is certainly among the worst for harshness of sentences for minor crimes and the extended length of sentences.

In this essay, I will examine the current legal swamp of horrors our adult society has drifted into and then look at how this same society prepares its children to live in it. I will follow that with my recommendations for how we could get out of this mess by maybe just following the examples set by our leaders (with just a tad of cynicism!).

Let us start with identifying some of the really monstrous characteristics of our so-called "Criminal Justice System":

· True justice is very hard to come by

If any justice whatsoever is to be received by an accused in the US today, it has to be purchased. There are countless barricades thrown up by the prosecuting and judicial agencies which insure that, without a major expenditure of funds, the determination of a persons guilt by some legitimate and fair process just isn't going to happen.

With enough money, the system may be forced to provide a minimal set of judicial operatives. With enough money, you can force the system to give you a trial. Once that is done, the probability of a successful defense is roughly proportional to the amount of money a person is willing to invest.

Some particular reasons why real justice in the USA is scarce as hen's teeth are:

Asset forfeiture

The government often takes a suspect's assets, including bank accounts, before any charges are ever brought. See the comprehensive report, "POLICING FOR PROFIT: THE DRUG WAR'S HIDDEN ECONOMIC AGENDA" by Eric Blumenson and Eva Nilsen.

Paid Secret Informants

Picture a society where the government employs thousands of its citizens to inform on their friends, family members, and business associates; where tens of millions of dollars in government funds are spent annually paying those who inform; where police obtain warrants to search and seize private property based on reports from hidden sources; where the only way to win early release from prison is to tell stories about others.

Welcome to the United States, 1995. -- Mark Curriden, National Law Journal

That about says it all, but if you really want your blood to boil, see the PBS film, Snitch, available at "Shop PBS".

Plea Bargaining

Imagine this scenario in a classroom: The teacher says to Johnny, "John, this paper you wrote is long and no doubt boring. In any case, I don't feel like reading it. But let me make you a deal: if I don't have to read the damn thing, I will give you a "C". However, if you force me to read it and determine its real merit, my judgment will likely be clouded by your imposition and I doubt that the paper will justify more than an "F". What should Johnny -- who really thought it was of "A+" quality -- do?

The described method, called "plea bargaining", is used in over 90% of all criminal convictions, according to Bruce Jackson, in his book Law and Disorder.

Adversarial system

"Prosecutors, with rare exceptions, are concerned with winning, not with justice", according to Jackson. The adversarial method has the inherent risk of sending some innocent people to prison for most of their lives and even the execution of an innocent now and then (see "Fatal Flaws: Innocence and the Death Penalty") as has been well documented by the news media and the movies (a good online reference is the series, "Win at all Costs", by Bill Moushey and Bob Martinson, published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazett).

· While the Crime Rate goes Down, The Incarceration Rate Continues to Climb! (See Note 3)

There are several reasons for this but the primary one is economic pressures and opportunities. One of the hottest investment items on the market today is private police and prisons (see the ABC News Special Report, "Profit and Punishment", online). The private prisons are growing at a rapid rate and their profits are most lucrative.

But, the main economic pressure comes from the self promotion of government agencies themselves (including their sub-contractors). There are thousands of well-paid jobs in the criminal justice system, spread over hundreds of federal as well as state agencies (DOD, DOJ, DEA, FBI, BATF, etc., etc., and their state equivalents). It is said that the next day after the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, there were over 50 different policing agencies on site! (and the bomber was never found!).

All these agencies have extensive support from their sub-contractors that are constantly promoting their own utilization. Plus there are the technologically based companies frantically promoting the purchase of ever and ever more sophisticated and expensive technology for crime control.

A result of all this pressure is that the system constantly craves new "criminals" just like a hungry pack of wolves constantly craves new meat.

· The System is Driven by Political Opportunism

"Criminal punishments are fixed for political, not psychological, sociological, criminological -- or even moral -- reasons"
Bruce Jackson, Law and Disorder

The reality is that politicians promote harsh sentencing so as not to appear soft on crime because to do so might endanger their chance for re-election. That is the driving force. Nothing more.

So How have we been Preparing Our Children for this Brutal Legal System?

Let us look at how we actually raise our children and then how they are treated as adults:

• Punishments are largely imaginary. Threats are made but are rarely followed through on.



This is absolutely not true in the Justice system. Once an infraction is triggered, there is little chance that the hard consequences dictated by law can be avoided.

• There is a great tolerance for minor infractions. Parents tend to look the other way, if at all possible. In fact, action will often be taken only when there is no other option.



Just the opposite in the Justice system. The system pursues minor infractions because a legal defense is so expensive and will probably not be pursued.

• There is much forgiveness.



In the Justice system there is no real forgiveness - just deals (see "plea bargaining" above).

• Parents have great leeway in their punishments.



Judges have none to almost none (as a result of the many "mandatory sentencing" laws passed by Congress).

• There is usually no physical punishment or extended periods of confinement.



In the adult "justice system", there is a strong economic incentive to keep as many people locked up for as long as possible. And physical punishment is routinely meted out in the form of "jailhouse rape".

• Children have control over their own upbringing. Let us face it, in many homes today, the children really run the show. To be fair, with all the social pressures that come from the external environment that the child is in, the parent really has few options about how the child should be raised.



This is definitely not be true in the adult environment. Congress and the judiciary totally decide the laws we live by with little input from the population. Note for example the several laws the public has voted for in California, only to be disallowed by the political power structure.

• Children are usually in a loving and compassionate environment



In the "Justice" system, love and compassion are extremely impractical and just as rare.

What can We do About This Mess?

So, what can we do? Well, we can either attack the adult hard justice side of the problem or the child raising side of the problem or both.

As far as doing anything about correcting the corrupt "justice" system we have, there is little hope. I know this is a hard pill to swallow but we have just waited too long and it is now highly unlikely that any significant effort can be mounted to thwart the incredibly powerful forces that want to perpetuate the status quo. The "justice problem" is really just an extension of the notorious "Drug War", and in spite of major criticism of that monstrous and destructive boondoggle, I see no real progress being made there. It is a disaster, big time.

So let us backup and see if we do something about the "child raising" side of the equation. Here we have a dilemma. From all indications, it appears that the majority in our society believe that permissive child raising is best. Yet, in that same society, the government believes that a hard line is best for adults. We have a major contradiction and something has to give. It seems obvious that we would have a better chance to change our ways of raising children than we would in changing the ways of the government!

In view of that, the obvious thing to do is follow the example of our exalted government, adopt their techniques, and bring hard discipline back into the home. We need to:

· Put the kids to work.

Make them pay you at least half their earnings. Let them know that what they get to keep is a gift from you and they ought to be thankful to get it.

· Establish a gazillion rules.

Make so many rules that they cannot get through a single day without breaking several. This will give you the power to invoke punishment any time you want. This gives you a lot of control.

· Make serious infractions out of many inconsequential personal activities .

This would include such things as picking your nose, eating junk food, wearing weird clothes, and masturbation.

· Make sure the rules are incomprehensible.

Use plenty of obfuscation, vagueness and contradictions

· Periodically inform the victim (your child) that they have been accused of a major infraction by an unidentified person.

Do not tell them who this accuser is or the details of the accusation. Just tell them they will be severely punished and that their only way out is to accuse one of your other children of something worse. (If you don't have any other children, maybe you could get a neighbor to cooperate on this).

· Finally, Three Strikes and They're Out!

You will need to break your list of rules into two categories: major and minor. For example, under minor you might include "no lying", "no bad grades", and "no masturbating". Under major you might include "no drugs", "no cheating on tests", and "no sex with others". With major rules, you then establish the super rule that if there are infractions of more than two times, then off the infractee goes to reform school (or whatever it is called these days!). Rehabilitation can be very expensive, so you would pay for their tenure there with the "taxes" you have collected from them previously. Don't worry if there is not enough -- just borrow. Borrow with a long term payback, long enough that the little trouble-makers will actually have the pleasure of paying off the loans.

• 1. An excellent reference on the American Criminal Justice system: Bruce Jackson, Law and Disorder, University of Illinois Press, 1984
• 2. "Little or no effort has been made to teach children responsibility for their acts, for this is supposed to come automatically on the stroke of [age] twenty-one", per Scott Simkins in "The Pursuit of Happiness"
• 3. Russia and the U.S. have been competing for the honor of having the highest incarceration rate for the last several years. Both now have rates above 600 per 100,000 population. Other advanced nations, like England and France, have around 100 per 100,000 population. See the "AMERICANS BEHIND BARS" report.

Copyright 1999 Leon Felkins. All rights reserved.