By: Daniel J. Simms, Imprisoned Author
ARE HARD ON CRIME PROPONENTS IDIOTS OR EVIL? GAVIN NEWSOM AND DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON COULD CONFRONT THIS QUESTION, WILL THEY?
There are higher substantive laws than U.S. Criminal Codes. Such as natural laws. Moral laws. Humanitarian laws. And even ethical laws. Though they may not control in current legal proceedings. They will assuredly control someday when we are judged. Whether that judgment comes from a deity, or comes from future generations, someday politicians and proponents of the hard on crime philosophies will face the bright light of the pending Judgment day. The truth is mass incarceration has failed on all metrics. Yet narrow minded partisans and close minded critics refuse to accept that fact or completely disregard it. Therefore we are forced to confront the question, are they idiots that can not understand, or do they fully understand but are inherently evil? That is a fundamental question we must get answered as a people and society.
The U.S. criminal justice system, Federal and State, is an abject failure. It was founded on racism and hate. And it has evolved into the biggest mass enslavement and labor wage theft scheme in human history. It routinely releases Americans traumatized, impoverished, exploited, untreated, uneducated, that unsurprisingly results in a slave/criminal mentality, which ultimately leads to high recidivist crime. As such all new victims of recidivist crime across the country should directly blame mass incarceration for their damages.
There was considerable amounts of research conducted across many decades which discovered the ineffectiveness of U.S. crime policies. The hard on crime types may dislike the resounding conclusions based on the data but they can not deny them. The unvarnished truth is that mass incarceration has failed to keep the public safe, failed to wisely steward taxpayers funds, failed to rehabilitate or correct misbehavior, and has stained our Country's reputation as modern slaveholders.
This begs the questions: (1) Is it a violation of natural law to encroach on someone's right to their own labor? (2) Is it a violation of moral laws to murder someone slowly with a long sentence when they have not murdered anyone? (3) Is it immoral to systemically enslave and steal Americans labor wages by coercion, force, and duress? The prevalence of morally corrupt laws like the three strike laws and the opaque weapon enhancements have cruelly imposed slow death sentences on our people. These fellow Americans are sadly languishing across the Country. (4) Is it unethical to perpetuate a criminal justice system that traumatizes Americans so badly that eighty two percent of them create new victims within ten years, sixty three percent within the first three years? (5) Is it a violation of humanitarian laws to indoctrinate Americans with a slave/criminal mentality which ultimately creates new victims? That is a very real question we must ask. (6) Is it unethical to squander taxpayers funds in a widely known failed experiment such as mass incarceration? And lastly, (7) are politicians and proponents of hard on crime legislation negligent, reckless, or deliberately wicked?
These are the questions that those with power and influence such as California Governor Gavin Newsom, superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and other powerful voices should be asking. They should be demanding meaningful prison reform in line with the Defund DOC movement which seeks all prisons to be turned into treatment and career centers. That prisoner slavery be abolished. And that all non homicide prison sentences be reduced to a rational eight to ten years maximum. These demanded reforms are basic, necessary, and beyond timely.
Unfortunately Gavin Newsom, a mainstream Democratic party leader is on the wrong side of this issue. When given the opportunity to abolish prisoner slavery with a bill that passed both California's legislative bodies he refused to sign it. Instead raising the weak impotent objection that it would bankrupt the State coffers. That is absurdly false. The State has vastly more funds and resources than the prisoner slaves they are stealing the labor from. Moreover the State profits immensely from prisoners slaving over license plates, office supplies and furniture, the running of prisons, and much more. Gavin Newsom's argument for continued prisoner slavery is similar to the argument slaveholders made pre-Civil War. It did not pass muster then and it surely should not today. So is Gavin an idiot or plain evil?
Dwayne Johnson recently appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast dipping his toe in politics by advocating moderation and a return to civility in political discourse. Such a position is admirable. It inspires hope. But does his stance include a return to the status quo of hateful hard on crime legislation? Will he make a stand and advocate for an end to prison slavery and for meaningful prison reform? Or will he follow the loud hatemongering crowd insistent on harsh criminal laws? We need their answer. Please share this until they get it.
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