Churchill, Bono, Lincoln and Holmes

Quote of the day:
“This is the sort of errant pedantry up with which I will not put.”
--Winston Churchill, responding to an aide who, in editing one of Churchill’s speeches, had changed a sentence ending with a preposition.

Quote of the day No. 2:
“It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away.”
--U2
(even in Buffalo, buried under snow today)

Statistic to anticipate:
It’s the time of year when we’ll hear about surveys showing that more high-school students can identify Justin Timberlake than Abraham Lincoln. This will be followed by various “ain’t it awful” interviews with experts who, we assume, can identify both Timberlake and Lincoln. I am on the edge of my recliner.

Justice quote of the day:
“Prison does not deter crime because criminals are too crazy, too drunk, too high, too uneducated, too unintelligent and too young to fully comprehend what they were doing at the time they broke the law.”
--Convicted murderer Jens Soering, in his book "An Expensive Way to Make Bad People Worse."

Justice quote of the day No. 2:
“General propositions do not decide concrete cases.”
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

When we hear about a crime--or, worse, are the victim of one--the focus is on dealing with whoever did it. If and when the person is convicted and sent to jail, we are relieved. They are away from us, and can do no harm. But what then?

This is an uncomfortable question which we dismiss, as individuals (unless it is someone we love who is in jail) and as a culture. It’s as if we expect the key to be thrown away.

Look at the multiplicity of TV shows about crime--they are all about analyzing evidence, catching and convicting. The only show about prison right now is "Prison Break," but it’s mostly a cat and mouse drama. The HBO show "Oz" was an excellent, in-your-face drama set in prison, but it’s gone now. It was so harsh it was difficult to watch.

I am no expert on criminal justice or how rehabilitation might be possible. But it’s hard not to notice that we seem to be focused on finding criminals and putting them away, with no consideration of what is going to happen when they are away to make them different when they are released.

Which 99% of them are.