Don't Look for Justice from Those in Power

I've stayed away from political issues on this blog for a reason. Issues of incarceration affect people from all political belief systems, and ideas to fix the problem must also come from all sides. Some political persuasions may hold tough on crime views that give little heed to why people commit crimes. Others might diminish the importance of personal accountability to the point that it offends victims of crime. Balancing these viewpoints is difficult because people's lives are at stake, but it must be done. Nevertheless, those tasked with such important work hardly inspire confidence. 

Painting every politician with a broad brush is, perhaps, unfair, but it is difficult to count on our political leaders to find solutions to crime and mass incarceration that balance justice with mercy. It is difficult to imagine equitable solutions coming from political bodies that are blind to their own duplicity and whose members think their own unjust behavior is just. 

When one political party sacrifices due process for swift "justice" (during impeachment) and then condemns the other side for planning the same, how can we expect fair solutions to complex criminal justice issues? When laws are not applied to people in power, but they are enforced on people who have no power, how can we expect just laws that are equitable? When due process is ignored in the most public of justice probes, how can people accused of crimes in less public venues expect fairly employed due process? When justice is defined so differently by people in power, how can people who suffer the effects of crime expect to experience justice? 

Our country's founders established this country with three branches of government to ensure that each held the other accountable for their decisions and actions. But the courts routinely ignore the proper application of laws, and then justify their actions as "harmless error," despite the harm it causes those accused of crimes. Prosecutors, who are members of the court, routinely break the law by withholding or manufacturing evidence, but they are protected by immunity from prosecution. Sadly, our executive and legislative branches lack the moral grounding to hold the courts (or each other) accountable because of their own failures to follow the law. 

Most of the people in prison are there because they broke the law. Justice demands accountability. But "justice" and "accountability" are difficult to define because our nation lacks political leaders who exemplify either in their own lives. Prisoners are expected to learn how to hold themselves accountable, but the highest reaches of government fail to provide a model of personal accountability. Prisoners are expected to learn pro-social behaviors, but political backstabbing and mudslinging by those who write and "enforce" the laws provide little inspiration to follow. 

Many prisoners are broken people who come from lives and social influences filled with brokenness. Honesty, integrity, accountability, and justice are all excellent things to strive for as a means of repairing that brokenness. But if we are to have examples to follow, it must come from somewhere other than from those who claim to be bastions of justice. Instead, we must look to those who quietly provide examples by showing us what it means to live honest lives of integrity. We must look to those who hold themselves accountable and for whom justice is a way of life, not a politically convenient catchphrase that has no personal relevance in their own lives. 

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