Why Our Justice System Needs Reform
In Des Moines Iowa, a 71 year old man
has been behind bars for ‘30' years. His crime, he lit a cigarette while
intoxicated, setting a fire in his apartment that unintentionally killed 5
people. He has been incarcerated for 30 years because of a deadly accident. Did
he wake up that morning and think to himself, ‘I’m going to kill 5 people
today’? NO! These are the types of crimes that fill our prisons
today.
A 5 year old girl is dead, and the
mother’s boyfriend was just arrested on child pornography charges. They found
over 1,000 images on his computer hard drive. He was convicted before this for
digitally penetrating a minor, a very young girl, with minimal charges and
punishment. He was seen by a psychiatrist for 6-8 weeks who concluded he was,
‘not a danger’ and should be released. Did he wake up that morning with thoughts
of child pornography, and the intentions of his next victim? YES! Unfortunately,
this is the case with the majority of these criminals, they are let out early
for completing therapy, or good behavior.
Another crime that is over-looked and
under-punished is animal torture, abuse, and animal cruelty. This is a crime of
inflicting inhumane, unreasonable, severe, harsh distressing, pain and suffering
to animals. Does this type of person wake up with thoughts on how he can cause
pain and suffering that day? YES! Many times the inflicter is a habitual
offender to these and other similar crimes such as child abuse and possibly
murder as mentioned above. They are not punished accordingly because their
victim ‘was just an animal’.
