Editor,
We’re fortunate in Island County to have competent judges who rule with principled ethics and beneficial values. But the concept of judgment, condemnation and incarceration alone isn’t accomplishing what an enlightened civilization needs.
Anyone sentenced to prison is condemned to a life of crime by the system itself. Once imprisoned, most inmates lose everything, including homes, family, possessions and, of course, self-respect. Worse, even those with improved social attitudes find themselves unable to get meaningful employment, decent living accommodations or able to get free of the indebtedness imposed by the legal system. Hopelessness drives them right back into behavior that puts them behind bars again.
Can we rise above this?
Washington state law provides that inmates be charged for their incarceration with interest fees that compound to more than 13 percent. The debt even accrues during incarceration. This is abominable when bank rates on dedicated funds are barely 1 percent.
The concept of paying their debt to society is impossible. These debts are seldom paid. Former convicts can’t get good jobs. It’s an enormous cost to taxpayers as well as dangerous to have hopeless people amongst us.
What good are our best efforts at correctional incarceration if we send them out to hopelessness? As a cop I once caught a released felon half-heartedly fleeing an armed robbery he committed. He said he wanted to go back to prison because life on the outside was so heavily stacked against him he couldn’t cope with it.
Our nation is said to have more incarcerated per capita than any industrialized nation of the world. We aren’t doing too well. Not only that, but it is awfully expensive. We need to get rid of the “good riddance to losers” mentality and recognize that our incessant competitive and highly celebrated capitalism doesn’t provide a level playing field for all.
There are times when we could benefit by being more helpfully cooperative than competitively adversarial.
To improve the situation, our Island County judges instituted diversion programs that are models of progress. As a citizen volunteer Drug Court mentor, I can tell you that, while we don’t win them all, the drug courts consistently produce graduates who are able to understand themselves, overcome addictions, and develop a determination to continue as sober, healthy, intelligent and productive citizens.
Taxpayer savings alone are enormous, to say nothing of lives being saved from resentful misery.
I can also tell you that our judges, jailers, program administrators and counselors have become better parents to program participants than some have ever known. Many participants started their anti-social decline by being bullied in school. Some were disliked because of physical or mental disabilities not their fault. Others never learned better because of abysmal parenting. Parenthood comes from raging hormones … no wisdom required.
Should our judges have to function like foster parents? Of course not, but fortunately ours have risen to the challenge of how things are, rather than how we either think or wish they were. They and their diversion team deserve appreciative applause.
Let’s give this some thought. Those who accept the challenge to do right need to be welcomed and helped back into good citizenship.
Al Williams
Oak Harbor
