--- Don Rowe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> --- colin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > what else was supposed to happen to them? (the two
> young men recently released after having stoned a
> toddler to death)
>
> In an IDEAL world, a period of supervised
> psychiatric
> counseling and evaluation, coupled with a program
> that
> would have gradually re-introduced & re-integrated
> them into the community, in such capacity as their
> progress and continuing prognosis dictated.
>
...
>
> In any case, I am hoping that the two boys in
> question
> are never far from the sight of some mental health
> care professional, public or private.
>
Amen to that. The penal system, no matter what
country it is in, and no matter how well its
intentions start off, does very little to rehabilitate
anyone. By its very nature, it can't - too many bad,
tough people in with too many other bad, tough people.
There may be those few people who have been
incarcerated who may be shocked into behaving
themselves but for most, the whole system becomes a
vicious circle. Some crimes shouldn't be punishable
by prison but by community service of some kind. But,
for the most part, I can't think of any alternative
for those who commit violent crimes.
In the case of the two boys in Britain, I sincerely
hope that they received major counselling the whole
time they were in prison and that a condition of their
release be continued therapy and constant monitoring.
I have no idea whether what they did could have been a
form of temporary insansity or whether they're
complete sociopaths and I'm inclined to go with the
sociopath version, in which case they will require
constant and vigilant monitoring for the rest of their
lives.
All that aside, there is a terrible inequity in the
number of non-white people who are sentenced to prison
compared to their numbers in the population at large.
(If ten per cent of the population of the U.S., for
example, is black, then you would expect the prison
population to be 10% as well). Something must be done
from the very beginning to ensure that people who are
born in poverty are not condemned to stay that way
because of the colour of their skin, or the language
they speak, of because they lack the financial means
to get out of the cycle.
School systems are supposed to treat everyone equally
but it is a fact here in Canada, as it is in the U.S.,
as I'm sure it is in Britain, that if you live in a
well-off neighbourhood, your school will be better
equipped, have better and newer books and so on - and
yet, schools are all supposed to be funded by the
taxpayers' money. (Except that Mr Rich Guy whose kids
attend the Rich Neighbourhood School has the money to
buy little extras for his kids' school).
Many of us despair because we want change to happen
overnight (wouldn't that be something?) and, as a
result, many people just give up and don't try to make
the system work more fairly. It's difficult to see a
light at the end of the tunnel.
I'm not saying that "the system" is to blame for these
kinds of events. Ultimately people of sound mind are
responsible for their own actions and make their own
choices. There are several reasons why people DON'T
commit crimes - one is, they don't want to be caught
and punished - even a sociopath can figure that one
out; better than the idea of avoiding punishment is
that people empathize with others. I won't hurt you,
because I wouldn't want to be hurt either, or because
I know that hurting you also hurts me.
But humans are weak and if they don't see results
right away, they're right back to the old ways.
People need to look at themselves as part of a
community, rather than as individuals out to grab the
most toys. If we who have a little more do something
to help the kid in the poor neighbourhood, then maybe
we'll have a productive citizen who can bring
something fresh and new into our lives and the lives
of others - a person who will go out and do the same
for other people.
At this point, I've lost sight of what my point is and
must go to pick up daughter who comes home from camp
tonight - I haven't seen her for two whole weeks! I
wonder if she has grown?
No man, or woman, is an island.
And so my sermon ends with a .....
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