Criminal Justice
I’m sure I have mentioned something about these ideas before but I will review them today. How should our criminal justice system work. First in my opinion nobody should be charged with any crime with the state as a damaged party unless the crime is directly against the government. What I mean is that a person needs to be identified as the victim in the crime and it should be (John Doe) vs. whoever is the defendant. Too many people are charged with crimes where there is no victim, and the government is not the victim unless the crime was specifically targeting the government which would have to be an economic crime. So there must be an identified victim who is not the government.
Second in my opinion no felony crime is committed unless there has been physical harm or economic harm against the victim, or there clearly is intended physical harm or economic harm against the victim. At least that is the way it should be for any felony. A misdemeanor may be slightly different in that sometimes there is no physical harm or economic harm committed, the government is just trying to control/regulate individuals, that is how we often create our laws.
Third no prison should be used as a form of punishment. Prisons are specifically for individuals whom would clearly be a danger either to themselves and or society. It is estimated that 6 percent of individuals in prisons commit 60 percent of the crimes committed. If a person is not a danger to themselves or society then we can use other types of punishment, restitution, community service, whatever makes the victim whole if at all possible.
Our governments what to punish first, and then fix the person who has been accused of any crime. That is a backward idea, we need to fix the person first and then hold them accountable for there actions. When a child has done something wrong we as parents if we are a good parent will first make sure the child understands what they have done is wrong and why what they have done is wrong and if there are any remedial actions that need to be taken they are taken before the child is required to make amends to whatever they have done. That is how we need to treat the adult who has done something wrong.