Crime and Punishent

"When it comes to crime, our prison industrial complex is a self-fulfilling cancer on the society and we should be shamed for it." Jersey Mc Jones

 Why? Who is inflicting that cancer on society? And why should we be ashamed?

 I dare say that most of us are law abiding citizens.  We commit no wrongs against our neighbors. Damn few torts, fewer misdemeanors, and even far fewer felonies than any denizen of your local, state, or federal correctional facility. For the most part, the average American citizen has limited experience of any sort of crime, and that mostly second hand. And far fewer have run afoul of the judicial system, and let's be honest, we believe those in such straights, probably deserve it. Being personally innocent, we may feel for those misguided souls, but can't escape the feeling that they have brought it on themselves.

 They invariably have!

I write this as the brother of a victim. Not of a crime, but of the consequence of one.

 My sister once had a fiance. A brilliant man. Friendly, sociable, witty, philosophical, a student, a teacher, a scholar. In short, one of us. Already had a Masters in Economics, and was working on a Doctorate. Taught that subject at a local community college, and to help make ends meet moonlighted as a cab driver. One night he picked up a fare. That cancerous soul, recently paroled from Jersey's "prison-industrial-complex" otherwise known as the New York State Correctional Facility at Singsing decided that the easiest way to rob this particular cabbie, was to shoot him in the head first. He was found slumped over the steering wheel. The perp, when finally apprehended three year later, was already serving 8 to 12 years for yet another armed robbery in NY.

 This happened around 35 years ago. By now that poor victim of the "prison industrial complex" is probably once again among us.

 What is it again we should be ashamed of?