Caring is at the heart of ethics and ethical decision-making. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who is truly ethical and yet, unconcerned with the welfare of others.
Caring is a lot like empathy. It is the ability to feel both the pain and pleasure of others. Caring can be expressed in something as simple as a caring hand on a shoulder, or an offer of praise or condolence, up to altruistic or benevolent actions.
Caring of any form is not absent from the lives of prisoners, but it is uncommon as a general rule. There are exceptions of course, and you might be surprised to see pockets of unusual caring. For instance, Michigan's male prisoners recently conducted a fundraiser to support an organization that assists low-income students in purchasing school uniforms. This fundraiser raised over $12,000 with an additional $15,000 committed by Michigan's female prison population.
Even though for many Michigan prisoners, this development of caring in their lives is too late to keep them out of prison, it's never too late to foster a caring attitude.
Caring might seem like a simple concept to those outside of prison, but in the prison environment, caring about others opens one's self to scrutiny and ridicule by other prisoners for being 'weak'. When an inmate recently killed himself in my unit I was shocked by the callous response by those around me. I heard jokes about it within hours of finding out and most were ambivalent, carrying the attitude that he should have killed himself.
While many brought this attitude to prison with them, the prison environment actually fosters a lack of empathy. You're taught to be 'hard' and to care about nobody but yourself.
While prison is supposedly meant to 'rehabilitate' prisoners, it is actually a petri-dish for feeding the character deficiencies most bring with them to prison.
Just like those outside of prison, prisoners must be vigilant to work on themselves to develop the qualities they need to be successful, and caring citizens again. It takes work, but anything worth having is worth working for.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Character Pillars: Fairness
Fairness is an ethical value that is much in dispute and subject to interpretation. It's a tricky concept because each party most often maintains a different definition of fairness.
You might not be surprised that most prisoners don't consider their sentences fair. Since the laws are written to give judges a lot of leeway in sentencing, it's easy to find huge disparities in sentences for similar crimes. Many times judges are sentencing someone who they know very little about. Although there are processes in place to alleviate this problem, it does little to resolve the issue of proportionality.
Likewise, it can be said that many victims would argue that some sentences aren't harsh enough. It comes back to the matter of fairness. Because fairness is such a tricky concept there has to be a balanced approach. The standard of justice needs to include a process, impartiality and equity. Although these concepts themselves can be subject to interpretation.
Author Stephen Covey advocated for Thinking Win-Win (in "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"). But I'm not sure there is ever a "Win-Win" for either the victim or the perpetrator of crime. There needs to be a fair standard of justice that holds criminals responsible for their crimes, while maintaining a balance of equity that gives room for repentence, restitution, and reconciliation. Obviously, not every circumstance allows for equity of this level, but many do. However, the State of Michigan rarely considers this necessary balance when pursuing a conviction and the resulting sentence.
Fairness in justice is a difficult concept to define, but it's less difficult to treat others with fairness in every day life. When you put others first you'll most likely always come out as fair. Are you fair in how you treat others? What might you change in order to develop the character pillar of fairness in your life?
You might not be surprised that most prisoners don't consider their sentences fair. Since the laws are written to give judges a lot of leeway in sentencing, it's easy to find huge disparities in sentences for similar crimes. Many times judges are sentencing someone who they know very little about. Although there are processes in place to alleviate this problem, it does little to resolve the issue of proportionality.
Likewise, it can be said that many victims would argue that some sentences aren't harsh enough. It comes back to the matter of fairness. Because fairness is such a tricky concept there has to be a balanced approach. The standard of justice needs to include a process, impartiality and equity. Although these concepts themselves can be subject to interpretation.
Author Stephen Covey advocated for Thinking Win-Win (in "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"). But I'm not sure there is ever a "Win-Win" for either the victim or the perpetrator of crime. There needs to be a fair standard of justice that holds criminals responsible for their crimes, while maintaining a balance of equity that gives room for repentence, restitution, and reconciliation. Obviously, not every circumstance allows for equity of this level, but many do. However, the State of Michigan rarely considers this necessary balance when pursuing a conviction and the resulting sentence.
Fairness in justice is a difficult concept to define, but it's less difficult to treat others with fairness in every day life. When you put others first you'll most likely always come out as fair. Are you fair in how you treat others? What might you change in order to develop the character pillar of fairness in your life?
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