We all have experienced quarantine during the past year. During the pandemic, we all have been locked in, we all have been isolated, we all have been detached from the rest of humanity. While not the same as being incarcerated, it is so similar to make us ask: will our Covid lockdowns improve the chances for prison reform?
It is logical. Our experiences during the quarantine gives us even just the smallest taste of how prisoners experience incarceration. So will the shared difficulties of home lockdowns open people to consider the benefits of criminal justice reform?
All in Favor, All Opposed
There will always be a segment of the population that opposes everything. “One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time,” said Robert F. Kennedy. And there will always be people who need to be imprisoned to protect everyone else. But will hearts recognize within themselves the seeds of reducing added tragedies we all have suffered?
And then of course are those who might oppose reform because they are of a vicious heart. They seems to steep themselves in hostility towards any reform or plan to improve anything. They thrive on their own anger, their own fury at the world, and enjoy the displeasure of their own company. They are adamant in their refusal to assist others, all done to justify their anger. “There is perhaps no surer way of infecting ourselves with virulent hatred toward a person than by doing him a grave injustice,” wrote Eric Hoffer (in The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements)
It seem obvious to note that those with a hatred-towards-others mindset have imprisoned themselves within the confines of their own disapproval. It would appear that any kindness, even towards themselves, would be rejected. Can those who actively reject compassion for some others actually accept it for themselves?
I have long wondered why some remain in ‘anger mode’ most all of their lives. It seems to me that staying angry is as motivating as fear is in politics. Politicians often raise the spectre of a fearful thing to motivate followers, and anger is the personal equivalent of politically-induced fear.
And Statistics
Widely known is that prison population is enormously high in the U.S., as the U.S. has the highest prison population in the world. The racial makeup of prisons is another major concern. The toll on the nation, both economically and psychically, is so large as to be immeasurable.
Of course, prisons do not exist alone. They exist within and as part of our nation, our culture. They are on the receiving end of the criminal justice system, which itself has prodigious problems.
There has been some movement. Some states have banned the death penalty. Some states have moved to reduce or eliminate penalties on small amount of drug possession. As pandemic lockdown restrictions are slowly lifted, can we expect more criminal justice reform movement?
What do you think? Tell me here.
The illustration is from “Le diverse et artificiose machine” (Diverse and artificial machines) by Agostino Ramelli, 1588. The volume is a collection of fantasical mechnical machines. Courtesy Library of Congress.
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