Proposed Plan To Reform Criminal Justice Systems Using Humane, Constitutional and Restorative Justice Principles and Practices

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Purpose and Objectives:

The purpose and objectives of this plan are to:

These principles and practices do not excuse crimes. By law, the primary purposes of criminal justice systems are to protect the public from perpetrators of crimes and rehabilitate perpetrators. As part of restorative justice, perpetrators of crimes are expected to provide appropriate restitutions to victims and be apologetic and contrite. The best way to get them to do this, is not by confrontations or threats. Public hangings are out. Perpetrators must be led to understand the damages, suffering and misery that their injustices have caused and are causing.

Please review ProsecuteOfficials.org to see how the information in this web site can be used in prosecutions.

Background

The following are extracts from the Background on U.S. Criminal Justice and Prison Systems

Senator Jim Webb introduced his National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 on March 26, 2009 and reintroduced it in 2010 and 2011. The original bill included

  • America's criminal justice system ... is a national disgrace.
  • Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness.
  • Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous.
  • We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives.
  • We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration.

Despite its urgency, on October 20, 2011, passage of Webb's National Criminal Justice Commission Act was blocked in the Senate by 43 Republican Senators who voted against cloture.

Even if the Act passed the Senate House, it would be months before the commission is formed and years before the commission makes recommendations and more years before the recommendations are acted on.

We can't wait. We know what needs to be done I propose we refine and use the below Plan To Reform Criminal Justice Systems Using Humane, Constitutional and Restorative Justice Principles and Practices

Maria Allwine an organizer for the October 2011 End The Machine Occupation, provided the following Statement on Prison Reform:

The Problem

Prisons in the United States have never been places where prisoners had much of a chance to rehabilitate themselves. Those who did return to society as fully functioning members did so in spite of the harsh and inhumane conditions found there. ... The US has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of its prisoners. ...

Over the past 30 years prisons have become profit centers for large corporations ... As a result, prisons are a growth industry, with the number of prisoners in private corrections facilities increasing by 33% at the state level and 120% at the federal level. ...

... “People who pose no real threat to anyone and also those who are mentally ill are languishing for months or years in high-security units.” The commission also stated, “In some places, the environment is so severe that people end up completely isolated, confined in constantly bright or constantly dim spaces without any meaningful contact – torturous condition that are proven to cause mental deterioration.” ...

... the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a shadowy, extremely powerful lobby group that creates and distributes model legislation throughout state legislatures. ... is a significant reason for the growth of the private prison industry. ...

Alfred Adler provided the following in chapter nine - Crime and its Prevention of his book What Life Could Mean to You. Alfred Adler (1870-1937), is the renowned psychologist and founder of the School of Individual Psychology.

Individual Psychology can help us recognize all the various types of human beings and understand that, despite this variation, human beings are not remarkably different from one another. We find, for example, the same kind of failures exhibited in the behavior of criminals as in that of problem children, neurotics, psychotics, suicides, alcoholics and sexual deviants. They all fail in their approach to the problems of life; ... in precisely the same way: every one of them fails in social interest; they are not concerned with their fellow human beings. ... criminals only differ from the common run in the severity of their failure. Corporal punishment is ineffective because it only confirms to criminals that society is hostile and impossible to cooperate with.

Clarence Darrow provided the following in his book, The Story of My Life. Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), is one of the most famous American lawyers, civil libertarians and advocates of the downtrodden.

... I was deeply grieved and somewhat surprised to see the cruel results of the steady and unscientific campaign against crime. The whole movement was directly in conflict with modern psychology and, in fact, with all the teachings of science.

Darrow provides an outstanding strategy for restorative justice: All of those who for any reason cannot or do not adjust themselves to important rules [i.e. have violated a serious law] should be examined by experts to find out why it is and what can be done; They should be helped in every way possible. Regardless of what they have done they should be released when it seems safe; meantime they should be kept under supervision in kindness and sympathy instead of harshness.

Additional items that are wrong with our criminal justice systems include:

  1. Many investigators, prosecutors and judges at every level:
    1. Routinely violate the rights of defendants. They conduct searches, infiltrate families and groups and wiretap without warrants. They issue warrants without probable cause and entrap individuals.
    2. Use practices that are unscientific and directly in conflict with modern psychology by threatening, humiliating and challenging defendants.
    3. Provide few opportunities for individuals accused of crimes and prisoners to pay restitution, apologize and reconcile with their victims.

Peter Joseph, Roxanne Meadows and Jacque Fresco provided the following in chapter 7 of The Zeitgeist Movement - Observations and Responses, February 2009:

The legal system today is a massive social distortion that does not take into account the environmental influences of a supposed “criminal”. Human behavior is a product of the environment. It is the environment that really creates our values and behavior. There is no fixed, predetermined ‘human nature’. Our values, methods and actions are developed and derived from our experiences. Therefore, since it is the environment that i    1nfluences our behavior itself, if we find patterns of behavior in our society that are socially offensive and abusive, we should look to the environment to figure out why those behaviors manifest to begin with.

If 120,000 people can come together to build a nuclear bomb, as was done with the Manhattan Project in the late 1930s, there is no reason why we cannot come together and use human ingenuity to accomplish incredible social achievements for the betterment of humanity. It is time we unleash our ‘Weapons of Mass Creation’ (WMCs) unto the world. It is time we take responsibility for each other and ourselves. We have the knowledge, means and initiative to devise an entirely new social architecture that can create a world we actually enjoy and flourish in.

readmore

The Zeitgeist Movement, The Venus Project and the People’s Universal, Common Vision, Goals and Agenda for a Peaceful, Prosperous and Just World outlined on WeThePeopleNow.org calls for many actions that will ultimately provide an environment that will not produce criminals. In the meantime our Criminal Justice and Prison Systems must be reformed.

Definitions:

Justice is the administration of law according to the principles of just behavior and treatment.

Just behavior is that which is morally right and fair, appropriate or deserved, well founded, done very carefully. Origin Latin justus, from jus 'law, right'

Constitutional means that it is in accordance with, agreeable to, consonant with, not in conflict with, the constitution and so guaranteed as to prevent legislative interference. This includes observing all constitutional rights of the accused. Salient Constitutional Rights are listed at http://www.humanejustice.org/salient_constitutional_rights.htm

The legal definition of “humane” is: Kind, tender, compassionate. Disposed to eliminate the cause of suffering of man or beast. Humane differs from the ordinary use of “merciful,” in that it expresses active endeavors to find and relieve suffering, and especially to prevent it, while “merciful” expresses the disposition to spare one the suffering which might be inflicted. Footnote The Geneva Convention requires that the people of an occupied country, detainees, and prisoners of war be treated humanely. Obviously, harsh interrogation techniques, abuse, torture and extraordinary rendition does not constitute humane treatment.

Discreet means judicious in one's conduct or speech.

Restorative justice is a natural, proven form of justice that seeks to restore victims and offenders to whole, contributing members of society. It emphasizes preventing additional harm and repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behavior. It is best accomplished through humane cooperative processes that include all stakeholders. Paraphrased from “Restorative Justice web site, RestorativeJustice.org” which provides additional information about restorative justice and Prison Fellowship International http://www.pfi.org.

Shining examples of very successful "Restorative Justice" programs include:

Rehabilitation means to restore to useful life, as through therapy and education or to restore to good condition, operation, or capacity.

The assumption of rehabilitation is that most people are not permanently criminal and that it is possible to restore a criminal many individuals who have committed crimes to a useful life, to a life in which they contribute to themselves and to society. A goal of rehabilitation is to prevent habitual offending, also known as criminal recidivism. Rather than punishing the harm out of a criminal, rehabilitation would seek, by means of education or therapy, to bring a criminal into a more normal state of mind, or into an attitude which would be helpful to society, rather than be harmful to society.

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehabilitation_(penology)

The dictionary definition of “reconciliation” includes the restoration of friendly relations, making or showing to be compatible or making someone accept a disagreeable thing. ORIGIN Latin reconciliare, from conciliare 'bring together'.

  1. Humane, discreet, restorative and reconciliatory approaches to criminal justice should be used now, because this:
    1. Is the right and proper thing to do
    2. Will not in anyway detract from the severity of crimes committed, excuse or exonerate anyone who has committed a serious crime or cause the criminal justice system to fail to protect the public.
    3. Can be utilized to reduce the huge number of people the US has in its prisons.
    4. Will greatly improve America’s criminal justice system

Actions

Recognize that in general criminals fail in their approach to life, in that they have not learned to help care for their fellow human beings, to cooperate, be empathetic and only differ from the average person in the severity of their failure to learn. Our society, institutions and governments are largely responsible for this. Accordingly we the people and our government must:

  1. Eliminate corporal punishment. abuse, bullying and threatening through education, reasoning and ultimately through rules, regulations and laws.
  2. Eliminate the death penalty
  3. Eliminate all solitary confinement which includes being confined alone with little or no human contact. Experts estimate that at least 36,000 people in the U.S. criminal justice system are currently held in solitary confinement, usually in a windowless cell for 23 hours per day and allowed to exercise alone for only an hour. Inmates in solitary confinement often experience paranoia, delusions, and long-term damaging mental effects.
  4. Teach cooperation with others to all age groups, in particular to very young children and perpetrators of crimes. Exercise and practice this training to fully develop it.
  5. Provide opportunities for restorative justice, rehabilitation and reconciliation. This will help identify those individuals who should be kept under supervision/confined, thus better protect the public from criminal behavior than current criminal justice programs do.
  6. Ensure all the rights of the accused as outlined in the Constitution (Salient Rights), the International Covenants on Human Rights and other laws are strictly protected during all phases of the criminal justice process.
  7. Initiate restorative justice, rehabilitation and reconciliation efforts after an arrest or summons and before a grand jury is impaneled. This will allow contrite perpetrators to make amends, apologize and pay restitution to their victims and make an Alford’s Plea (a plea of guilty that may be accepted by a court, normally as part of a plea bargain when the defendant does not admit guilt). In this way, the need for lengthy indictments and trials could be reduced. Hence the victim and perpetrator could get on with their lives sooner. This will also help identify those individuals who should be kept under supervision/confined, thus better protect the public from criminal behavior than current criminal justice programs do.
The following actions are paraphrased from Maria Allwine's Statement on Prison Reform:
  1. Pass legislation and craft rules and regulations at the federal level upholding the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution as it applies to prisons to the following:
    1. Create a humane, rehabilitative prison system that emphasizes rehabilitation over punishment based upon upholding the human rights of prisoners while protecting the larger society from those who cannot be rehabilitated.
    2. Prevent the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) from promoting a prison agenda based on ideology, not science or fact, and creating and disseminating prison legislation to any jurisdiction.
    3. Abolish commercial bail bonding by federal law. Determining suitability for pre-trial release should not be based on how much money a defendant can pay, but by using evidence-based practices to determine who can and cannot be released under supervision, while providing for necessary intervention to protect public safety.
    4. Abolish the practice of determining parole according to ability to pay.
    5. Provide parole violators drug treatment and job training and do not automatically return them to prison.
    6. Prohibit the use of solitary confinement (defined as torture by the UN Commission on Human Rights), group punishment, physical or psychological abuse of any kind, prolonged lock-downs, the use of abusive prisoner extraction techniques, the use and tolerance of rape and sexual coercion and withholding of medical treatment.
    7. Guarantee access to books, nutritious food, drug treatment, job training, exercise, competent medical care and safety during incarceration.
    8. Dismantle all CMUs, SHUs and Supermax prisons.
    9. Establish civilian oversight boards comprised of community leaders, prison reform advocates and penal specialists to ensure prison management and staff do not violate the human rights of prisoners and that prisoners re-entering the community are prepared to do so and are provided with the kinds of support needed to successfully re-integrate, such as job training, job prospects, housing and drug treatment. Prisons exist in communities and are not separate from them.
    10. Guarantee all prisoners in all jurisdictions full restoration of their voting rights.
    11. Ban the widespread practice of housing the mentally ill in prisons. Mentally ill persons who commit crimes should be treated in facilities designed for the safe treatment of the mentally ill while guaranteeing the safety of the larger community.
    12. Release all political prisoners in the US immediately, including Leonard Peltier.
    13. End racial profiling, especially of Muslims.
    14. Prosecute Joe Arpaio, the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, for human rights violations and any other law enforcement official engaging in similar activities.
    15. Legalize drugs and control their production, sale and distribution while providing drug education and treatment on demand.
  2. Government investigators, prosecutors, prison officials, guards and others involved in the Criminal Justice System must:
    1. Apply humane, discreet, restorative justice and reconciliation practices to all phases of the criminal justice process and begin as rapidly as possible to prevent additional crimes from being committed.
    2. Observe all the rights of the accused in all phases of the criminal justice process.
    3. Set aside or eliminate any laws, regulations or practices that grants immunity to any public servant that violates civil rights of anyone or commits.
    4. Keep the names of the accused and the documentation being prepared for their prosecution private (not secret) and not revealed or “leaked” to the public until after they are actually indicted. The accused does of course have a right to a public trial.
    5. Treat all defendants and prisoners humanely, kindly and with dignity while, at the same time, insuring prison guards and prison inmates are protected.
    6. Screen all prisoners on a case by case basis, to discern why they exhibit inappropriate behavior and what should be done to help correct such behavior. Counsel and release all those who are not a threat to society. Insure that all released are afforded employment opportunities, health care, affordable shelter, counseling and a network of supporters. Releasing individuals from prison’s that are not a threat to society, will allow more attention to be applied to those that cannot yet be released.
    7. Keep those that are threats to society confined. Counsel them, insure that they are taught to be cooperative and how to be interested in and helpful to their fellow human beings. Provide them with the opportunity to be employed at a living wage in particular in work that benefits themselves and others. Provide them the opportunity to pay restitution and apologize to the victim(s) of their crime(s).
  3. Congress, the Administration and local/state governments must:
    1. As rapidly as possible, provide employment opportunities at living wages for all by implementing the plan Provide Both Employment Opportunities at Living Wages and Affordable Necessities of Life for All  including those being released from and remaining in prisons.
    2. Hire additional counselors and rehabilitation and probation officers.
    3. Provide justice, restitution, reparations and sincere counseling to those individuals who have been illegally detained, abused and/or tortured. This is a right thing to do. It will also help prevent these individuals from becoming threats to society or turn to terrorism once released.
    4. End the war on drugs and provide counseling in lieu of confinement.
    5. Phase out all privately owned prisons.