Crime Doesn't Repay, But It Should
Wendy McElroy proposes something that I've been in favor of ever since I had my car stolen -- the concept that criminals should not only have to compensate their victims, but pay the cost of trial and jail:
A criminal court that focused on restitution would force those convicted to repay their victims not only for direct financial losses but also in compensation for emotional trauma. Criminals would bear the cost of court proceedings and of collecting any restitution that is not rendered voluntarily. If criminals did not have the means to pay a judgment or could not be trusted to do so over time, they could be monitored or confined to an institution for the sole purpose of working to earn that compensation and to pay the cost of confinement. The taxpayer would be taken out of the loop.Objections immediately arise: for example, some categories of crime are so heinous that they do not seem to allow restitution. How can you compensate a victim of rape or murder?
I have always found this objection to be odd. The fact that there may be no perfect or adequate form of restitution is not an argument against providing whatever repayment is possible. A rapist cannot restore a victim's sense of safety but he or she can be made to pay such items as medical bills, the cost of counseling, and compensation for emotional trauma. A murderer cannot repay his debt to the dead but he can be forced to earn money to pay in perpetuity the expenses of a victim's family: food, mortgage, tuition, and so on. It is odd to argue that only non-criminal or trivial injuries deserve restitution. The more serious the injury, the more it seems that the victim deserves compensation.
The way I see it, our prisons should all be turned into hamster wheels of repayment. You want to watch Law & Order, con man? That'll be 120 extra license plates you'll make today!
First, some prisoners already work. Federal prisons often house factories which make things for for-profit companies that have some kind of deal with the government. I have visited these facilities. They usually pay the prisoners a few cents an hour to work, but there are very few jobs available.
There is no realistic way to dramatically expand the work prisoners do in order to create enough money to pay victims. There aren't enough manufacturing jobs to go around as it is; no politician in his right mind will encourage closing factories people are employed at and moving the operations into prisons. Service businesses are not well-suited to incarcerated individuals, although some prisoners do customer-service telephone work. (Which was a surprise to me.) Again, every service job in prison means one less job outside prison.
Also, the idea of holding someone in prison longer than their original sentence, just to make them work to pay off a debt, makes no sense. The daily cost of keeping a person in jail would far exceed any wages they could bring in - so there would be nothing left over to pay the court system or the victim.
Finally, there is a constitutional limit on how long you can keep someone in jail just to make them pay off a debt. There would also be potential problems with large employers giving local governments the incentive to lock up a lot of people in order to create what is essentially a slave labor force for the company. Imagine what it would look like for, say, African-American prisoners in chains out in fields in the South picking produce. Plus ca change...
Mithras at January 2, 2004 12:48 AM
From the article: "Another objection: what happens to the healthy desire for vengeance?"
"Healthy desire for vengeance" is an oxymoron.
Mithras, superbly done! You raise some very valid points. The only objection I could think of in this wee hour of the morning was our tendency to turn criminals into victims. The man who gets shot, for instance, while breaking into someone's home. Can you imagine a man being compensated for injuries incurred while forcing entry? To say nothing of criminalizing someone for defending the sanctity of his own home? Of course, that already happens.
Patrick at January 2, 2004 4:27 AM
But Darling, isn't that what we have the working classes for?
Hertford at January 2, 2004 5:21 PM
Business interests through their political servants will CLOSE factories in the interest of profit. Nothing is sacred in this world of greed.
Silence Or Compliance
Raymond Donald Pairan Jr.
Copyright (c) 2004 All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
This paper is just a further elaboration on some of the topics that I presented in my work entitled ìThe Economyî which I hope has inspired the moral, the passionate, and displaced future working slave class to start inquiring about their ultimate condition within the hands of the business/political elite. It is absolutely wonderful that certain members of the media have started to question the direction and motives of the business/political elite and have beat the bushes where theyíve been hiding thus exposing their true motives to the clear light of day. But make no mistake the business/political elite will stop at nothing to eliminate any opposition be it ethical government, the media, or any other encumbrance that inhibits them from achieving their goal of creating a subservient working class and a contrasting unencumbered business/political elite power base.
SILENCE/COMPLIANCE
At this point in time the media has the business/political elite (forgoing referred to as the controllers) on the defensive at least within the United States, which is in the mist of a presidential election year. Make no mistake the controllers would like to and will eventually silence all media dissent against their planned worldwide domination of all elements that can negatively effect their goal of sucking every last drop of revenue from the world into their realm. If this means devising a means of quelling dissent from those within the media that donít wish to go quietly with the controllers view ñ so be it. Keep in mind that money and power are the driving force of the controllers and everything and anything that inhibits their eventual control over these elements in their eyes must be eliminated. This could mean the off shoring of media jobs to compliant outlets such as India where in the case of the English speaking world there exists a future working slave class that speaks English rather decently. The controllers could then eliminate media disseminated descent to their plans of complete global control over all the factors of production including the eventual working slave class. This means that no job is safe from the plans by the controllers to evolve all jobs into mere subservient, compliant, malleable factors of production. Time is limited for the controllers and others that support the free trade (code word ñ free) subjugation over all workingmen and women. The ideologue's within the future working slave class will blindly follow one another lock step onto the slave ship that will set sail for their future of no dissent, compliance, no morality, no freedom, no future but one of subservience. The time is very near at hand so those within the media that are the moral voice of dissent must take our case to a fever pace in order to expose and keep all rouses from becoming the new molded distorted facts that can be espoused by the controllers. For the controllers their religion is money and power because for them nothing else matters. If they can gain control over not only you the educated working, the hard factory working, the service sector working, then they will be free to build a truly worldwide free market economy where they are free to do what they wish when they wish it.
BEND THE TRUTH LIKE LIGHT THROUGH A PRISM
If you say something enough and if you change the dynamics and distort the facts to your liking then eventually it will be believed by enough people to become the truth. Basically, the controllers just prior to taking complete control over all media dissent will be hard pressed to dispute facts such as 3 million jobs lost in under 3 years, poverty within the United States at record high levels, whole town centers across rural America with a preponderance of vacant store fronts, a trillion dollar deficit, most states within budget crisis, a college education now getting further from the reach of most Americans, and the list goes on and on. Historically speaking when facts donít convey what the power elite (in our case the controllers) wish than they just change the way those facts are presented so they convey a distorted picture favorable to those in control. This is nothing new and has been employed quite successfully by those in power many times in the past in the form of propaganda. We must maintain focus on the standard measures used within the past and not let the seeping of new measures (touted by the controllers) distort the facts.
THE TIME IS NOW
It is imperative that we work with the media while it is still free to convey the truth about the controllerís objectives and goals. Time is quickly running out for the average working citizen to maintain some semblance of influence over their respective governments. The controllers will and are gaining control over these governments covertly, directly, and through draining the government treasuries converting partially effective governments into impotent shells of past power. Once the controllers are finished with governments than even the political elite will be at jeopardy of becoming obsolete. So those within the political elite may be enjoying the fruits of soiled money conveyed to them by the business controllers but make no mistake once the business controllers have achieved their objectives they will dispose of even the political elite thus eliminating this drain on their coveted profits. There exists one goal of the controllers and that is to extract and drain as much wealth from the world as is possible. The controllers have no God, no religion, no morals, no scruples, and no conscience but only one overriding unquenchable desire ñ the complete control over all aspects of their bottom line. They will stop at nothing to satisfy their additive need to acquire more and more wealth at the expense of anything that gets in their way. Any worker that is currently employed by a firm that has global reach over its factors of production (and this doesnít include many small to medium sized firmís playing by the rules) are at risk of being eliminated. This includes every imaginable profession since there currently exists the technology and desire (by the controllers) to out source any profession ñ first and foremost the media (the thorn within the controllers side). It is imperative that in the next few weeks and months that all of us that count ourselves among the working class keep abreast of issues, meaningful relevant facts, and not be swayed by propaganda spewing from the controllers. We must make our voices heard through written, vocal, and peaceful dissent to the path that the controllers are leading us down. We must not and cannot follow the controllers blindly into a future of no government and working slave subservience. Remember the controllers will use key phrases such as ìfree marketî, ìhousehold surveyî, patriotism, and many others to sway global opinion towards their way of reasoning. Also, keep in mind there are many honest, decent, caring employers (mostly small, medium, and large sized businesses) that are playing by the rules and respect their workers, and communities. It is probably only a few but powerful firms making up the Fortune 500 that are the real controllers of a destiny of worker subservience. I will continue to write the unpopular truth be it what may come. You should continue to question, reason, and judge the facts and not be swayed by propaganda. Let the facts speak for themselves because they surely will if given the chance!
Raymond Pairan Jr at March 14, 2004 5:33 AM