There were a couple of thoughts about America’s philosophy toward justice from Chris Hayes's A Colony in a Nation that I thought would fit better into a separate post rather than in last week’s initial reading review.
The first insight grows from the basic concept of equality built into all of America’s founding principles. This idea was extended to the justice system by recognizing that everyone is equal if and only if everyone is punished equally. This extension led the country to slowly phase out a system that punished based on the criminal’s societal status. Over time, the lighter punishments reserved for high-status prisoners were phased out and all criminals eventually suffered the harsher punishments traditionally reserved for low-status prisoners. (In contrast, over the same period of time many countries have shunned this ‘race to the bottom’ approach and moved low-status prisoners up to the same punishments given to high-status prisoners.)
The second thought I noted from the book was about how victims in the American system are offered little beyond punishment for the offender. This is in line with the wrath and vengeance emphasized by the American system. Longtime readers may recall a similar thought I highlighted when I wrote about Nikki Giovanni’s A Good Cry. Though I write this with no interest in making wild predictions, I sense at some point America’s justice system will inevitably replace its thinly veiled emphasis on revenge with the dual pillars of compensation for victims and rehabilitation for all but the most hopeless perpetrators.
