Schontasha Dyce

For many people, crime and punishment stand in a necessary relationship of cause and effect. If one commits a crime, she or he must be punished -the more serious the crime, the harsher the punishment. Basically, we are taught that this is the way our ‘justice’ system works –or should work. As we all know, in reality, things don’t always work out this way: Many innocent people end up in jail, while countless criminals walk out free. The criminal justice system, is in-factually, the attempt to achieve and maintain justice. However, universally this is the cause of violence. James Gilligan who wrote “violence” helps me to describe it more. The government blames all kinds of people for making bad decisions, so why can’t they blame themselves!!!

People, who take life intentionally, do not deserve to enjoy life.  I’m sure lots of people would agree on that. The extent of the punishment, should depend on the crime and at the same time fit the criminal. But who protects the innocent? When even a lawyer can’t prove their innocents or even those arrested for the smallest thing like cannabis; which is a nonviolent crime. Or the men and women caught up at the wrong place, wrong time? All of these are crimes or causes to get arrested but also different crimes, but in the end, all endure the same experience, once they enter the classification part of being an inmate. In my opinion, they all live in the worse inhuman, cruel and degrading conditions; with severe overcrowding, frequent rapes and beatings, prolonged and arbitrary use of solitary confinement, grossly unsanitary, disease-inducing living conditions, and deprivation of elementary medical care. Those conditions being the way of life that they have to adjust to, once they reach the initial prison experience.

In Violence by James Gilligan he helps to enlighten this topic a little more. “Over centuries, the subject and object of punishment has shifted from the body to the soul, from dead bodies to dead souls, from the maiming of bodies to the maiming of human souls.” (145)

Punishment has changed drastically from the physical to a mental plane because it has become more symbolic at a rarefied level. Crime and punishment are reciprocal systems for the symbolic exchange of honor and shame. The need to refine our American penal system is oblivious. The guards, the C.O.’s (who according to Gilligan, are the devils reincarnated.) The water supply- who is the social and economic system, and the sewer system- all the prison systems and prison mental hospitals, are creating these animals little by little in and outside of these prisons. The pathogen that causes the most lethal form of pathology, of our time is emotions.

The public health approach is the appropriate model to show, that violence is a contagious disease, not a hereditary one. “In prison, the more violent people are, the more harshly the prison authorities punish them, and the more harshly they are punished, the more violent they become, so that both the inmates and the prison authorities are engaged in a constantly repeated counterproductive, power struggle- the ultimate “vicious” cycle!” According to the book Violence, Lloyd A. is a great example of the drastic change in men after being in prison. Lloyd A. was a man who had just been released from prison, after only a few days brutally and without provocation murdered one college student and nearly killed another who had picked Lloyd up when he was hitchhiking. He was sentenced to a “Natural life sentence”. Prior to his release, while in prison, “prison officers found Lloyd A. to be a difficult, rebellious, often obnoxious and provocative young man. As a consequence, Lloyd A. had spent virtually his entire previous sentence in solitary confinement. When sufficiently annoyed, the correction officers would punish him by closing a solid steel door which covered the only exit from his tiny concrete cell, and by turning off the only light in his cell, which had the effects of creating the feeling of being buried alive, unable to see or to speak to anyone- the functional equivalent of destroying his eyes and tongue. I can’t stop thinking that maybe if these officers didn’t keep Lloyd in confinement and symbolically didn’t take away his eyes and ears, would his victims still be alive!! Gilligan helps me to explain. “Lloyd A. was angry, embittered, unprepared to be in the community, and utterly without any of the supports that might have helped him to be less of a menace to the public.”

Another great examples in this book is Chester T. who was a very angry and violent inmate due to all the frequent rapes he endured in prison. Chester T. was in prison for an armed robbery. The only thing Chester wanted above all was his pride, dignity, and self-esteem, which all was taken from him once he reached prison. Billy A. a man in his mid-forties who had been treated so badly in prison, worse than an animal is treated. They took all the property he had. (p107) “If you don’t have your self-respect, you don’t have nothing.” This is how many people feel and why I’m sure our prison inmates grow more and more angry every day. “Death is a positive in this situation, not a negative, because I’m so tired of all this bullshit that death seems thrilling by comparison. I’m not depressed. I don’t have any feelings or wants, but I’ve got to have myself respect, and I’ve declared war on the whole world till I get it!” Many of these men feel this way and have strong views, because prison is all about dehumanizing these prisoners. The emotion of shame is the primary or ultimate cause of all violence, an after living in an inhuman environment for a long period of time, crime or violence becomes contagious. Violence is the infliction of physical injury on a human being by a human being. So punishment in other words, means the infliction of physical/mental pain or injury on anyone beyond that which is an unavoidable consequence of keeping him from inflicting violence or pain on himself or others.

Crime and punishment leaves little room for forgiveness, which after a loss, forgiveness can be the hardest thing to do. Yet we keep hearing that we human beings must be able to understand and forgive. But how can we forgive if the government, our society does not show examples of that. And our penal system leaves no room for morals just punishment. According to Gilligan (p141) “Punishment, then, is the collective violence which any society define as legal. The actual injuries inflicted on criminals by the legal system are specifically intended to be as identical as possible to the violence committed by the criminals. Crime and punishment are reciprocal systems for the symbolic exchange of honor and shame. The penal system is a big cause for the recidivism in the prisons as well as the violence on the streets by repeat offenders. Going back to Lloyd A, instead of him being released to the community on parole status in a series of gradual transitions, with increasing levels of freedom, responsibility, and privileges, such as finding a job and beginning work while still living in a supervised and supportive residential facility, Lloyd A. was given no transitional period in which to readjust and adapt to the “outside.” (p148) “He was not eligible for any rehabilitative treatment whatsoever. Instead, one day, his full sentence was “rapped up”(prison slang for completed) on the day when the prison could no longer legally keep him, his solid door was opened, and Lloyd A. was led blinking into the daylight, through all the other solid doors that blocks access to the outside world, until he found himself out on the street.” I agree with Gilligan when he states that “punishing someone in the way that he was punished does not protect the public; it only sends a human time bomb into the community where he is primed to explode the moment he resumes his first contact with other human beings.” That is the study, so my statement to our government or penal system is, if we can prove that Lloyd A’s actions was due to his experience in prison, then we must blame our penal system for the animal that was released into our society, and endangered the public, after the purpose of the justice system is to keep the public safe.

Punishment is not necessary. Punishment per se does not prevent or inhibits further violence, it stimulates it. For instance, you can lock a dog in a closet for a month, but I would not want to be the person who’s standing there when you let him out!! Imprisonment is just that, locking a dog up for months: those of them, who serve short intermediate sentence: and then they release the prisoners back out into the public after all the torture. Is corporal punishment or the death penalty justifiable in any sensible way? This is a great question, since I have a one tract mind on this subject, and that is, there is no justification for corporal punishment. It takes a murderer to murder. So if the government is killing people in the name of justice, the act is still inflicting pain, as well as taking the life of another human being. Referring back to the definition of violence- the infliction of physical injury on a human being by a human being. While reading the book Violence, A quote stuck with me and that was “violence like charity starts at home!” This happened to be the most profound quote I have read so far, basically because this happens to be the most drastic explanation yet. Take prison for example. These inmates and criminal, live in prison, once they are sentenced right? Well that is their home, and in there they deal with all types of violence, like I described above. Once released they go back on the streets, they displace the same ruthless violence on the streets. It is a fact that most prisoners, return home from jail more violent, obnoxious, and ruthless than when they first entered the prison system. I’m not so certain about how easily I can envision a society without punishment! Since it seems as though, our society is significantly based around punishment. But I do know that the world would be a much better world. Nevertheless, I’m sure our society has to evolve more; before that possibility can even work, or come to pass.

To conclude, Gilligan has a very particular view of crime and punishment. He argues that crime equals punishment and that, consequently, punishment equals crime. According to him, crime is illegal punishment, while punishment is legal crime (Ch. 6). The implication here is that a society without punishment entails one without crime, and vice versa. But the government and penal system leaves little room, for crime not to happen. Punishment per se does not prevent or inhibits further violence, it stimulates it. The public health approach is the appropriate model to show, that violence is a contagious disease, not a hereditary one. If that is true, we need to attack the disease as well as reform our justice system.

agree with Gilligan when he states that “punishing someone in the way that he was punished does not protect the public; it only sends a human time bomb into the community where he is primed to explode the moment he resumes his first contact with other human beings.” That is the study, so my statement to our government or penal system is, if we can prove that Lloyd A’s actions was due to his experience in prison, then we must blame our penal system for the animal that was released into our society, and endangered the public, after the purpose of the justice system is to keep the public safe.

Punishment is not necessary. Punishment per se does not prevent or inhibits further violence, it stimulates it. For instance, you can lock a dog in a closet for a month, but I would not want to be the person who’s standing there when you let him out!! Imprisonment is just that, locking a dog up for months: those of them, who serve short intermediate sentence: and then they release the prisoners back out into the public after all the torture. Is corporal punishment or the death penalty justifiable in any sensible way? This is a great question, since I have a one tract mind on this subject, and that is, there is no justification for corporal punishment. It takes a murderer to murder. So if the government is killing people in the name of justice, the act is still inflicting pain, as well as taking the life of another human being. Referring back to the definition of violence- the infliction of physical injury on a human being by a human being. While reading the book Violence, A quote stuck with me and that was “violence like charity starts at home!” This happened to be the most profound quote I have read so far, basically because this happens to be the most drastic explanation yet. Take prison for example. These inmates and criminal, live in prison, once they are sentenced right? Well that is their home, and in there they deal with all types of violence, like I described above. Once released they go back on the streets, they displace the same ruthless violence on the streets. It is a fact that most prisoners, return home from jail more violent, obnoxious, and ruthless than when they first entered the prison system. I’m not so certain about how easily I can envision a society without punishment! Since it seems as though, our society is significantly based around punishment. But I do know that the world would be a much better world. Nevertheless, I’m sure our society has to evolve more; before that possibility can even work, or come to pass.

To conclude, Gilligan has a very particular view of crime and punishment. He argues that crime equals punishment and that, consequently, punishment equals crime. According to him, crime is illegal punishment, while punishment is legal crime (Ch. 6). The implication here is that a society without punishment entails one without crime, and vice versa. But the government and penal system leaves little room, for crime not to happen. Punishment per se does not prevent or inhibits further violence, it stimulates it. The public health approach is the appropriate model to show, that violence is a contagious disease, not a hereditary one. If that is true, we need to attack the disease as well as reform our justice system.