Crime and Justice

Last Updated 25 November 2000

A vision for our nation is:

Criminal injury-per-capita and property loss-per-capita in the USA rank among the 25% best (lowest) nations.

Prisoners-per-capita in the USA ranks among the 50% best (lowest) nations.

On nation continues to uphold the Bills of Rights of our Constitution.

Actions we should take include:

Continue to improve real educational effectiveness and employment opportunities.

Restore reason to our system of laws - reserve criminal punishment for those individuals who directly harm others, not for "victemless" activities.

Eliminate capital punishment.

Eliminate forfeiture.

The overall approach is:

The only real long-term solution to crime is to reduce the number of people who commit crimes.

We should allocate more resources to education and employment, so nearly everyone succeeds, and fewer turn to crime. Lack of real opportunity for education, employment, and life fulfillment causes criminal behavior.

However, each person must be held responsible and accountable for his or her own actions, whatever the circumstances. Incarceration for crimes of violence, theft, fraud, and negligence should swift and long, to protect our society.

Criminal laws must be simple and fair. Perceptions of complex and arbitrarily applied laws creates disrespect and disregard.

Police and justice activities should focus on serious criminal actions that harm others, not on "crimes" that involve only oneself or willing participants. This both respects citizens’ rights, and saves resources for education and employment that would otherwise be used for enforcement and incarceration.

An example: No one would be arrested or incarcerated for simple possession of drugs, including the most common and harmful drug, alcohol. Arrest and incarceration would be reserved for actual harmful consequences of drug usage, such as robbery, driving under the influence, and so on.
Another example: No one would be arrested or incarcerated for any consensual sexual activity between two adults.

Drug usage itself should be decriminalized. We must reverse the trend towards more and more citizens and residents in prison, largely for non-violent crimes.

Marijuana usage is no worse, and arguably less destructive, than alcohol usage; it should be decriminalized entirely. At the very least, it made a prescription drug, available to ill patients without fear of prosecution.
Addicts of more serious drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, should have their drugs provided by the government, thus eliminating the criminal effects on society as well as reducing the demand and consequent import of such drugs from abroad.

Capital punishment should be eliminated.

As stated above, every person should be completely responsible for his or her own actions. However, in addition to that, to whatever small extent that society contributes to that behavior, society should be willing to share some additional responsibility. Society should express that responsbility by paying for lifetime incarceration rather than imposing the penalty of death.
In addition, our criminal justice system has shown itself to be inaccurate when convicting suspets and sentencing then to death. Our society should be willing to pay for lifetime incarceration, with the possibility of correction, rather than risking sending an innocent person to death.

Above all, we must all respect and uphold our rights as citizens, as stated in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the USA (i.e., forfeiture must be eliminated).

One example: No one's property would be confiscated without full due process of the law; i.e., no suspect would forfeit property without conviction of a crime. Current forfeiture laws based only on arrest and suspicion of criminal activity must all be repealed.