Excuse Me Officer: Daddy Broke The Law

Sometimes I hear things in prison that make me shake my head in frustration at the stupidity of how they sound.

This morning as I heated some water for tea in the microwave in the dayroom a news story on the T.V. caught my ear and the ears of several other prisoners. It was a story of a little six year old boy who called 911 to report to the police that his father had driven through a red light. The story was cute because the boy was innocently responding to what his father had taught him--call the police if you see someone breaking the law.

What struck me was the reaction of two prisoners who on hearing this story immediately said, "That kid's a rat! He would definitely be a rat in prison!"

It's true that in prison the "code" says that you mind your own business and stay out of other people's business. In prison keeping that code could mean the difference between life and death. But to immediately conclude that law abiding citizens should turn a blind eye to crime just shows the criminal mentality many in prison operate under.

For sure, some prisoners talk the code because they think it makes them look "hard", but as soon as it is convenient to save their own skin that code gets tossed to the wayside. Some prisoners don't even need an excuse to tell someone else's business, but let them tell it and they hate rats.

This criminal mentality, that crime should be allowed to go on unchecked by those who suffer from it, is illogical, and it contradicts the actions of those who operate under this criminal thinking. If one of these criminally minded people is harmed himself he will not stand idly by; instead, he will take justice into his own hands, rally his friends to enact justice, or yes, he will report the harm to the authorities.

Maybe the little boy calling the police on his father is a little extreme, but we should not be surprised when law abiding citizens report crime. That's their civic duty and the morally right thing to do. Those who commit crime should be held accountable for their behavior, and accountability is one of the foundational principles of restorative justice practices.