What Should Sentences Look Like? 6-21-2010

 I thought myself done with sentencing, but I realized I left a hole in the sentencing discussion.

[Dear Reader, sorry about my 2010 self. I thought I was finished typing up this topic. He was quite angry with the federal Sentencing Guidelines, and I continue to be so. I considered them a Rube Goldberg device, and that remains my opinion. I was learning to use the journal to creatively exercise my anger. There may also be here a bit of the lawyer working himself away from the law. Anyway, back to 2010. sch 12/11/22]

What would be a better sentencing scheme? 

For first-time, non-violent offenders - probation. Violent crimes being those whose physical on a person is the defining act of the crime. Arson might create an exception. The downside being the Bureau of Prisons employees losing jobs.

Second offenses? Hit them with a mandatory minimum. If they have learned to change their ways, they are just too dumb to be left on the streets.

Frankly, probation scares the piss out of me. [How's that for deterrence? sch 12/11/22] I have no home, I can no longer practice law, and have no money. I would have to deal with some very angry relatives, friends, and acquaintances. I wanted peace and order in my life. Jail provides a variety of peace and a definite order. I can say objectively, probation does everything the public should want at a reasonable cost. Maybe if I was on probation with a good anti-depressant, it could work.

sch

[I wrote fast in a dormitory setting. I find me impressing myself that I was as coherent as I was. However, I see I left one thing out of the discussion above, or maybe it is there as an unexpressed premise. See, in Indiana one could (can?) get probation only by having a suspended sentence - the whole or a portion of the time for imprisonment could be suspended - and if one violated the terms of the probation order, then you went off to serve your time. The violation could come on the last day, and you could very well be sent to prison. I see that was left out of the note above. It could be, I was doing a bit of too much writing for myself. I still think probation would have been harder on me - a constant shaming would have been much more painful than what prison was. Prison actually let me escape the anger of people whom I offended. Time and death has allowed me to continue that escape. Even though I am putting myself into the public with these notes, I have a barrier against the direct, face-to-face confrontation I would have had in 2010. Maybe you think prison is constant torture, or a version of Dante's Inferno, but it is no., (Sorry for you who get off on such images.) A conversation heard early on in my prison career between two Blacks, probably in their twenties, while standing in the mess hall line that Fort Dix FCI would be a great place if there were women, has never left me as indicating what prison is like for many people: a rather enjoyable experience, maybe more than their lives outside of prison, one they cope with easily, one that does not impose such a burden as to impose a desire to change their lives. This is the system you created, the system you continue to support, thinking it will make you safe by depriving others of a pleasant life. Think about that when you start talking about recidivism. sch 12/11/22.]