When I was in my teens we had the Young Offenders Act overseeing us. At the
time - it has improved since then - it was along the lines:
If you get
sentenced before you are 18 (big if) when you turn 18 your record will get wiped
clean
I knew quite a few people who stole cars (and other things) before
turning 18. They stopped cold when they turned 18.
All the system taught
them was:
Have fun - any fun - till you turn 18, you won't be truly held
accountable till then.
In those instances, no amount of counseling helped.
And then magically, when they turned 18 they suddenly no longer needed the
counseling.
My point being:
Sometimes the people doing the misdeed
know what they are doing is wrong and they do it anyway. Because the discipline
that is applied is a lesser cost then the total benefit they gained from doing
the wrong.
I'm a firm believer in escalating punishment with the counseling
occurring very, very early in the process. When the counseling fails - only
increased physical punishment (such as longer jail time) is an option. You are
left with that as the only option because of the choice of the individual
performing the misdeeds.
At the same time, I believe if people continue
to choose a path knowing it's wrong so that escalating prison time is required.
Then they should also start being required to work, being paid an appropriate
wage for said work, in order to pay:
Their "living" costs including food,
utilities, housing, etc
Their associated costs with regards the police
having to respond to their most recent crime
Their associated costs
with having the Court system have to deal with them
In the current case,
the facts of concern - as presented in the article, are:
Arrested 13 times
prior on burglary/theft - no indication of how many convictions which would be a
more appropriate number
Arrested a total of 70 times - again, the
proper number would be conviction rate
The most previous arrest was for
the exact same thing and the day after release, he committed the same
crime
Pure supposition: perhaps he's already had plenty of psychiatric
counseling and he just doesn't want to help himself yet.
Then again, it's
also pure supposition that he hasn't received psychiatric counseling.
And
this is where the main media fails: They don't seek out the important details
for Society. They only present what's immediately available and you can't be
guaranteed they've presented all of that because they prefer sensational stories
over factual stories in order to sell newspapers.
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