There's this guy that I know that recently went to prison and his maximum term is life. He's in there for killing a girl. I thought about it a lot when the news was fresh and everyone was up in arms about what he did, but I keep thinking about it periodically. It's weird, cuz he was in my math class in high school and we did trig together and laughed about random things. I thought he was a pretty cool person. Normal. Made some stupid choices sometimes, but not any that were uncommon for a high school senior.
It's been three-ish years since I've interacted with him, but I can't imagine he lost all humanity in that time. Yet during his trial, instead of weeping for the victim like everyone else, I couldn't help but let my heart weep for him. Don't get me wrong. What he did was very wrong. That girl's life was so precious and it is incredibly sad and unfair that she died at the hands of such rage. But without invalidating that, I felt like she was getting so much defense and support and he was getting none. My soul ached for the absence of love and forgiveness.
Speeches during the trial that ripped up one side of him and tore down the other. Hate groups on facebook created by all of his victim's friends. Ruthless, relentless, unfeeling attorneys. People calling for the death penalty. Comments that drove spears of bitterness deep into him.
This boy has been called a monster and a killer. Is he? Is that who he was born to be? Is killing, hating, and destroying all he is capable of?
Something in me screams so loudly against the kind of justice that returns wrong with revenge, hate with hate, death with death. If death, hate, and revenge are our reply to the broken things of this world, where is love supposed to begin? If we always wait for the next guy to live with love and forgiveness, the world will only sink deeper into the hole it is in while we all wait for what we ourselves are not willing to give. What if instead, we returned reckless hate with reckless love? What then?
When children are young, parents often discipline them when they do something wrong. Every now and then, a child steps so far out of line or gets so out of control that they need a time out or in some cases, a spanking, to catch their attention. This is the consequence of their actions -- the punishment.
But hopefully, if a parent is doing things right, they don't just stop there. Following the consequence there is usually a conversation to be had about what went wrong, why it was wrong, what could be done differently, and maybe how that situation could be fixed. And then at the end of it all, a second chance is given. The most important part of this discipline process was not the time out or spanking. It was the period of learning and growing afterward.
As I think about this boy, this man, this child of God that just has a lot of bad marks -- I am saddened. I am saddened because he is part of a system that acts as a perpetual consequence without offering much opportunity for growth or learning, and no one wants to give him a second chance. This system has the power to teach him that he IS a monster and a killer and that is what defines his life and why he is where he is, why he does what he does, why he lives the way he lives.
Mulling over his life, his worth as a human being, his trial, and the criminal "justice" system he has now entered into, I have realized this:
Punishment is not the teacher. It is merely the tool for helping a person get to a point where they are ready to be taught.
Does a life sentence leave any room for real, restorative justice?
1 comment:
Ellen, this piece of writing- and your heart behind it- is beautiful and God driven. Thank you for writing it and thank you for having eyes and a heart that are willing to see and feel differently from the world around us.
Post a Comment