Been having a lot of thoughts lately on how the main problem with reaching a cultural consensus on how to deal with people who commit crimes (besides the racism, which is just...all-encompassing here) is that there is a fundamental lack of agreement about what the goal is

There are two goals, as I see it, to criminal justice efforts: one is harm reduction and rehabilitation, and one is punishment. And the two are pretty much mutually exclusive.

We know what we have to do to prevent recidivism: mental healthcare, education, job training, and support after imprisonment to reintegrate into society, get a job, and not drop immediately back into the poverty most crime stems from

But to those who primarily see criminal justice as being about punishment, all of that seems like a *reward.* So we get harsher sentences, harsher treatment in prison, and actively harassing ex-convicts outside of prison to prevent them from reentering society

Which feels viscerally more satisfying, but guess what? It doesn't prevent crime. It doesn't seem to act as a deterrent (nor does the death penalty, while we're at it), and it makes people MORE likely to reoffend

So what's more important to you? Preventing crime from happening in the first place? Then you need to be investing in your community, and catching the people currently falling through the cracks. And when they do fall anyway, examining what happened and helping them do better

Or is it punishing wrongdoers? In which case, maybe you like our current system, because it sure is all about punishment. But it doesn't prevent any suffering, and it does create more of it than there needs to be. So in general, I prefer harm reduction.

Part of why people commit crimes is they become so alienated from society that they feel no loyalty toward it. When you're treated like a potential criminal from birth by virtue of race or class, policed mercilessly, and told poverty just means you aren't working hard enough...

Then yeah, maybe you don't give a damn what other people think of your behavior anymore. And if you then go to prison and are treated like garbage inside and then thrown back out on the streets at the end of your term, you're not going to exit liking society MORE

We don't just need a kinder, more results-focused justice system (rather than one that just cares about finding a body to throw into prison) in order to actually prevent crime. We need a kinder, more results-focused society.

In talking with people who are more conservative on criminal justice than I am, I've found some traction with being able to break things down this way. "Do you want people to get punished, or do you want to prevent crime? Because you can't really have both. So what's priority?"

Just some midday thoughts, because my brain likes ambushing me with them.