How Much Does the Criminal Justice System Owe to the Families of Murder Victims?
True crime shows are to me what the daily news is to most people. If I were forced to pick one over the other for the rest of my life, it would be an easy choice. It is gratifying to watch law enforcement go through the process of consoling the families of victims, building a strong case, delivering indictments, convictions, and sentences, and ultimately putting responsible parties behind bars thus delivering justice on behalf of victims and the loved ones they leave behind.
There is another piece of each of these stories, however, and it is the chapter that belongs to the accused after they go to jail, do their time, reform their behavior, and ultimately face the possibility of parole. Only those closest to the case think about the fact that the person who murdered their family member may one day walk free. Just this morning I read an article about a convict who committed a violent murder in 1985 who is up for parole this year and may go free as soon as April 5th, 2018. The family members are trying to prevent the convict from being released even though he has met the terms of his parole. While I feel for the family members of the deceased who are horrified at the prospect of seeing this person on the street, I also wonder how much more the justice system owes them since due process has been carried out in their family’s case. If the verdict has been delivered, the period of confinement has been served, and the terms of parole have been met, what else, if anything, should the criminal justice system be expected to do?
Government entities are being accused of employing catch and release policies with criminals across the United States. Many believe that crime rates are rising all over the country because offenders are not receiving appropriate punishments for their crimes. While I agree this is true in some cases, I am not sure it applies to someone who has done hard time and has met the terms of their parole.
No one in my family has fallen victim to a murderer, so I cannot say how I would feel if someone who killed my family were up for parole. But perhaps one of the issues with our justice system is that we spend so much time trying to keep people behind bars that have met all the terms of their incarceration and may go free that we have no time left to focus on new offenders who need to be put away. Many claim our justice system is broken; I say it is only broken if we lose perspective on the purpose of the process. We do not put people behind bars to see them rot; we incarcerate wrongdoers with the purpose of preventing them from carrying out any more crimes while guiding them through the process of accepting responsibility for what they’ve done and reforming their behavior so they do not do it again. If we keep this perspective, and if we carry out these objectives, hasn’t justice been served?
