CRIME

When we discuss crime, we are really discussing the system that is required to manage the underside of our population. Our criminal justice system needs to be reformed to reflect the reality of Rhode Island.

Criminal punishment for social infractions is the job of the state. As a fair and just society, we are often seen to be pampering of the criminal element, however, even giving up those positions, it is evident that there are some simplistic reforms that could be made to eliminate danger to the public, realistically manage the criminal population, and reduce costs to society.

We are often told of crime rates rising or falling, but those statistics rarely give a true picture of the present. A zero percent increase in murder in a high murder rate city is not an accomplishment, yet the statistics are bantered about as though they have real meaning.

What has more meaning to criminal statisticians is the population’s numbers in terms of men between the ages of 18 to 30, the rate of unemployment and other societal statistics. These statistics are now being more and more applied in a gender neutral sense, encompassing women in that same age group. These are the real predictors as opposed to historical markers.

Crimes are more likely to occur in certain determinable populations. Crimes are more likely to occur when there is a larger concentration of young males. Crimes are more likely to occur where there is drug traffic due to the societal desire to prohibit various modes of conduct concerning drug use. Property crimes and murder are more likely perpetrated by people in the same neighborhood or family. It really isn’t brain surgery. There are clear trends in criminology that we continue to ignore when setting legislative policy.

Perhaps the best starting point to get a sense of how this problem came to be, we need to look to our do-good legislators. In an attempt to show the public just how tough they were on crime, they generally criminalized a host of behaviors that gave them political points. Drugs, a traditional whipping boy for law and order types, along with prostitution accounts for much of the crime that occurs in Rhode Island. Our prison populations across the nation are filled with 20 to 25 percent of people serving for drug related offenses. We fill our courts with these criminals. We give them a record, make them less likely to get gainful employment, re-arrest them for more drug use or sales, or worse a breaking and entering charge. Eventually, after clogging the courts for eight or ten occasions, they are incarcerated, only to be released early.

The cycle creates employment in the police-court-prison system, but is it truly serving the best interests of the people, creating employment disincentives in the communities that traditionally serve up drug and prostitution convicts?

We need to put a priority system in place. Violent offenders should not be tolerated. Convicts with firearms should be prosecuted relentlessly and, if convicted, made to serve out their full sentence. Convicted rapists and child molesters should be put away from society rather than use some system of registration. If they are in prison, we know where they are.

What needs to occur is a complete review of the crimes and the sentences that are attached to them. By realistically prosecuting major crimes, by requiring realistic sentences, and by mandating that all sentences shall be served in or near full term, we are sending a message as to crime.

At present, we are not really sending a message other than our system is completely broken. We have people arrested only to let them back on the streets. We give light sentences to multiple offenders.

We need to stop crime. We need to punish offenders in a manner that teaches them that the laws of the state must be obeyed or a punishment needs to be inflicted. It is that simple.

It is too simplistic to say we need to build more prisons; the real response is that we should be housing the prisoners who are the most physically threatening to our social well being.

This does not mean that I advocate giving the non-violents a free pass in the legal system. They are still offenders and need to feel justice. We could utilize creative sentencing for these types of matters. What is wrong with allowing a modified release program to only those fully paid back restitution and are willing to pay the state to monitor them? Such a system would be equally applied to all not convicted of a crime of violence. It is really the predatory types that physically injure people that we need to keep from law abiding citizens. It is all about a reasoned focus.

Rapists and child molesters are given light sentences and then let out on parole only to try to enforce some crazy system of sex offender registration. If the crime is as outrageous as the public deems, then it should be punished accordingly. The registration after the fact is both illogical and a legislative effort aimed to placate voters in light of the fact that it was the legislative sentencing mandates that were easy on these offenders in the first place.

This is not a platform to advocate that we need to abolish punishment for drug offenses or outside prostitution or other largely victimless crime. What we need to do is look at the criminal justice system as one would administer any other triage operation.

There are priorities. There are sound policies related to crime. But, there is the politician who cannot resist the temptation to overly criminalize behaviors. Still, as any parent can tell you, no matter how many rules you make, unless you enforce them in a quick, efficient and fair manner, all the rules are worthless.

We need to focus punishment efforts on murder, sex crimes and other crimes of violence. Then we need to focus on property crime. And then we can work with the niceties of other petty offenses.

There is a significant distinction that needs clarification here. Focus on punishment is distinct from policing. In policing efforts, every little crime should be treated as a priority. It is how we punish these crimes that is in need review.

It is understood that many police departments use the arrest on the smaller charges to attack what they see as a larger offender. But this approach is not really policing but instead is a created justification to remove people from the streets who have been released by an inadequate punishment system. It may look like good on the arrest sheets, but the realistic part of the equation is that it inefficiently uses the system.

While I understand that it is not the police officer’s duty to question the law, it is the politician’s job. The police are merely carrying out the idiotic policy created by the legislature (not denying the argument that the number of criminal defense attorneys in the legislature makes certain that crime pays).

Given the structure of our criminal system, we are not doing justice to the perpetrators and we are surely not doing justice for the taxpayers who pay for this system of utter foolishness.

By having realistic sentences and enforcing those sentences according to the terms of their imposition, we can operate a more efficient system that would have a clearly defined system of punishment. The Romans would clearly state punishments for various crimes. If you did the crime, you knew you would do the specified time. Today, with creative sentences and shortened sentences, there is no sense of deterrence. Quite frankly, no one really knows what a sentence will be, but most will be unrealistic – some being too lenient with others being too draconian, neither with a rational relationship to the actual crime committed.

There is no reason for society to tolerate criminals in its free population. We have institutions for a reason and we should apply reason in using them. I am not against spending money to build and operate prisons, so long as the prison system is working to its highest efficiency and effectiveness.

In the future I hope to discuss how to better utilize tax dollars appropriated to the courts and the criminal justice system. I hope to further discuss the relationship between crime predictors and the way we police our state. And, I want to expand on the need to restructure our system to maintain real law and order at minimal cost and with fairness.