By Edwin Cooney
Yah, I know I’m in trouble already even before you read any
further! However, that’s okay,
because one of my jobs, as I see it, is to invite you to join me in
occasionally thinking outside of the box.
However, before I make my case, here’s the origin of this week’s social
commentary.
I got a message from a friend and reader this week. He
related a story from the Buffalo Evening News about a 68-year-old nun, Sister
Mary Anne Rapp of the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity
in Lewiston, New York. Sister Mary
Anne is going to jail for 90 days for stealing $130,000 over a period of five
years from the parishioners of two churches in Orleans County, New York. No one, not even me, argues with the
restitution aspect of the court’s judgment, but I agree fully with my friend
who writes that jailing this nun is not justice. She will get through the 90 day sentence in the Orleans
County jail and she’ll gladly do her 100 hours of community service and pay her
$128,000 of restitution. However I
argue that her punishment will have nothing to do with her successful struggle
with her gambling addiction.
Unfortunately, the fact that she’s being punished is what is likely to
matter to most people.
So, first, let’s define "punishment." Broadly speaking, punishment is the
suffering, pain, and loss inflicted by our judicial system as a penalty in
retribution for a crime for which you or I (or perhaps both of us!) have been
convicted after the due process of law.
The dictionary lists a number of categories of punishment that society
in general or people in particular may dole out to us: capital, company,
corporal, cruel and unusual, physical, temporal, and self.
Of course, from almost the very instant we’re born
punishment is available to us. We
don’t even necessarily have to earn it as we must earn food, shelter, clothing
or all of the pleasant aspects of human life. Yes, indeed -- we’re actually entitled to it. Punishment is a birthright available
throughout the entire world! What
a bargain!
We have only anecdotal proof that punishment ever
works. Oh, I know all of the
anecdotes that speak of how a parent scolded and spanked a kid so soundly that
he or she never again chased a ball into the street. Then I’ve heard story upon story of testimony from jailed
felons who’ve mended their ways as a result of the Christian, Judaic or Muslim
ministry they experienced while inside.
My observation would be that Christian, Judaic or Muslim ministries are
just as available outside as they are inside prison. Hence, from the time we begin to reason, we’re indoctrinated
with the idea that retribution -- in at least a controlled form -- is just and
therefore constitutes justice.
Now I’ve received and meted out my share of punishment
throughout my entire life. (I
suppose, in retrospect, that as an adult I’ve even administered punishment to
my friends and to my two spouses just as they have to me.) The purpose of punishment is to send
the proverbial message that someone’s actions have damaged one's sense of
well-being -- that it hurts -- and that one ought not repeat the offense, thus
the angry words or hurtful action.
The bottom line however is that it seldom works. Punishment and justice, as I see it,
aren’t comparable or compatible.
Now, before you get your undies in too much of a bunch, I’m
not against controlling people who are out of control. People who would endanger the safety
and security of others must be prevented from doing so. There must be places where such persons
are held and reprogrammed to alter their behavior to the degree that that is
possible. When a child is in the grip of punishment, most of the time in
confinement is taken up feeling sorry to have been caught. The child may ultimately regret having
hurt or embarrassed parents, friends and perhaps teachers, but that retrospect
on their part usually comes afterward once the sting of the punishment has
spent itself.
Thus, if there’s little relationship between the cause and the
method of alleviating the offense, then that method of offense alleviation
needs revising, doesn’t it?
The idea of revenge, retribution, payback or whatever you
call it is endemic to almost every western culture as well as some eastern
cultures. Hence, if we teach that
punishment is just and much of the time is an antidote to unacceptable
behavior, but that teaching proves to be very limited in its truth, isn’t it
time to rethink that lesson?
Insisting that you and I are accountable for what we do and
devising ways to enforce accountability is one thing and is very
legitimate. Punishment,
retribution, the administering of loss or pain only reinforces the power of
payback as I see it. If payback
constitutes justice then where is the principle in justice? If justice is devoid of principle, what
is its real value?
The judge was right to order that Sister Mary Anne reimburse
those whom she defrauded. That
requirement, as I see it, doesn’t constitute punishment. That part of the verdict is justice in
its most powerful exactitude.
The administration of justice is a legitimate and essential
element of any worthwhile society.
Sadly, every society throughout the history of man seems to have made
the same mistake: they have made punishment the main ingredient of justice.
That may well be humankind’s greatest sin!
Whether my thinking is inside or outside of the box it seems
that I’m forever a candidate for punishment –- the single most popular human
right!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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