j This week’s post and discussion topic is very familiar to me. My dad has been in law
enforcement almost my entire life. I have gotten to see first- hand and meditate over
how effective and legitimate our current penal system is in the USA. I have come to
agree with the author’s conclusion that “Surely a society with creativity sufficient to
put a person on the moon need not to settle for a failed system of punishment here on
earth.” I do believe that there is room for some justice reform with the current system.
However, I don’t feel like we need to fully start over from scratch and just throw
everything out. In relation to the post, specifically with the continue failed “War on
Drugs” in the United States, I have had many conversations with people about how
simply decriminalizing drugs will not fix the issue. I am aware that multiple issues do
plague our system (overcrowded prisons, drug crimes, racial oppression, etc. In my
opinion, I believe a potential change to punishments for crimes would be the most
impactful option. The author goes into detail about multiple potential options for
dealing with minor, non-violent crimes without jail time, focuses mainly on first-time
offenders. Of the options listed, there is one that stuck out to me the most.
Community service would be a great alternative for minor first-time drug offenses. It
would be ideal if they could even serve those hours in the community and areas that
they messed up in. It is my belief that it would open their eyes to the damage they
caused and possible road their life could be heading down towards. Another good
option that I believe would help is focusing more on addiction/mental health
treatment instead of jail time. A lot of first time or minor drug crime offenders need
help. However, if the system is so focused on just throwing them in prison then who is
helping them improve and work through what they need too? There are states that are
beginning to do this and all of the statistics are positive so far. One of the states is
California. Since 2000 when this became a healthy alternative around 85% of first-
time offenders do not commit another drug crime after going through therapy and
addiction recovery. There are also amazing statistics on organizations helping those
people get jobs that help improve their quality of life.
McQuilkin, Robert, Copan, Paul. An Introduction to Biblical Ethics. IVP Academic.
2013.
