Paris Hilton's recent release from Los Angeles County jail to "home detention" after serving only three days of a 45-day sentence has been reversed, at least for the moment. She is back in jail, with orders that she must serve her 45-day sentence (though time off for good behavior or other factors may still cut the actual time served considerably).
But Hilton's extremely early release is only the tip of the iceberg in Los Angeles County. And it exemplifies a larger problem in the United States -- one that can perhaps best be described as crime and lack of punishment.
Let's start with Los Angeles County, where Sheriff Lee Baca is routinely releasing hundreds of prisoners every day well before their sentences are up -- about 47,000 a year. Inmates in Los Angeles County frequently are released after serving merely 10% of their sentence. The explanation given by Baca is that this is necessary due to prison overcrowding.
Probably so. But what does it say about respect for the rule of law in America when a person sent to jail for 30 days rarely serves more than three?
When a judge pronounces a 30-day sentence, it reflects a societal judgment -- reached after considerable time, effort and expense on the part of the judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, jurors, court clerks, expert witnesses, and probation officers -- that a 30-day sentence is appropriate and fitting punishment for the crime committed. The length of the sentence is intended to reflect the best balance between competing considerations of justice, punishment, deterrence, and mercy.
When a 30-day jail sentence is done in one long weekend, it's certainly a relief for the offender, but what does that tell the offender about the seriousness with which society views his crime?
What does it tell the victims about the seriousness with which the law will work to punish and deter such crimes?
What does it say to citizens who abide by the law?
What it says, when prisoners routinely serve only 10% of their sentences, is that the rule of law is a joke.
And that's a serious problem, because the guiding hallmark of America's republican form of democracy is that ours is a government of laws and not of men.
It is a point of pride in America -- it is a cornerstone of our greatness -- that all citizens, from the "highest" to the "lowest," have equal rights and privileges under the law. In our system of government, nobody receives special treatment.
Paris Hilton will not receive better or worse treatment in America's system of justice, if it is functioning as it should, because we are a government of laws, not of men -- and certainly not a government of celebrities.
In reality, Paris Hilton has not received particularly favorable treatment in this case. Yes, the manner in which she and her handlers engineered her release is a bit unusual. Paris was released early, according to Sheriff Baca, due to some sort of psychological stress, or perhaps by withdrawal symptoms of some kind, perhaps involving alcohol or prescription drugs. (Baca did not disclose the details of Hilton's medical condition that led to her release, citing medical privacy laws, so we can only speculate at this point.)
Undoubtedly, many other inmates showing similar symptoms to those which resulted in Hilton's release have not been released. But Hilton's release after merely three days is right down the alley for Los Angeles County. The sheriff's excuse is jail overcrowding, and it's hard to argue with physical necessity -- but what kind of message does this revolving door jail system send?
Of course, not every famous convicted person receives inordinate leniency these days. Scooter Libby is the latest case in point. But one senses that Libby's case is not a shining example, either, of government of laws, not of men. On the contrary, there is more than a nagging suspicion that Libby's prosecution and harsh sentence were precisely based on who he is as a man -- a man who closely served the current Vice President and the current administration. That suspicion is reinforced by the fact that the person who leaked Valerie Plame's identity -- Richard Armitage -- is walking free today and under no cloud of prosecution or investigation at all. How can that be? Are we indeed a government of laws, or does it all come down to political expediency, calculation and advantage?
The jail and prison overcrowding problem is clearly made worse, if not wholly caused by, the massive wave of illegal immigration in the United States. Roughly one-quarter of federal prisoners are illegal aliens. A similar number of Los Angeles County jail inmates, ranging from 11% to 25% by some estimates, are illegal aliens.
An "illegal" alien is, by definition, a lawbreaker. That uncomfortable fact does not change if the alien in question is re-labeled as merely "undocumented" or -- in the ultimate stretch -- an "undocumented American." (I guess if your feet touch American soil at all these days, you're an American.)
By many counts, there are 12 million illegal aliens living in the United States today. That means we have at least 12 million de facto permanent residents who have no respect for the rule of law in America. For them, it's a nation of men, not of laws. As long as they have their foot in the door -- and hopefully the feet of their spouses, parents, children, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, second cousins once removed as well -- they don't particularly care what the Constitution and laws of the United States say. The laws are interesting only insofar as they happen to be useful. If certain laws are not immediately helpful to those with this mindset, those laws don't exist and may be disregarded.
Meanwhile, the Conscientious, Honorable Undocumented Mexican Population which also hopes to immigrate to the United States, but through legal means -- also known as "C.H.U.M.P.S." -- is left languishing at home for years, decades, and entire lifetimes.
Of course, aliens who try to emigrate to America through legal means are not, in reality, chumps. They are the kind of honorable, law-abiding citizens America would most love to have, and should have. But instead America has set up a system of overly strict immigration laws, accompanied gross under-enforcement, and the end result is that we are treating the potential cream of the immigration crop like chumps. Our immigration laws have become a sieve that admits the lawbreakers while carefully screening out the law-abiding.
Laws that are not consistently enforced are worse than useless, for lack of enforcement and selective or arbitrary enforcement lead to injustices, favoritism, repeat offenses, and widespread violation.
So what is left of respect for the rule of law in America? Is there anything left of our Constitution and laws?
Yes, there is something left. There is something left of our rule of law as long as there are men and women who will consistently enforce our laws.
It's tempting to see acts of leniency (like Hilton's early release) as acts of compassion. And certainly not every crime or probation violation require a sentence of 30 or 45 days. For citizens who are generally law-abiding, a quick trip in and out of the jail system is usually more than enough.
Leniency can indeed be compassionate, and it can even be appropriate in many cases; but it is a questionable sort of compassion if it does not take into account what lies on the other side of the equation.
For every crime that has a victim or potential future victim, mercy toward the convicted person translates into a lack of mercy for the victim who still suffers the aftermath of the crime today, or the potential future victim who will suffer some day because the offender was not sufficiently deterred by his previous encounter with the criminal justice system.
Our laws exist for reasons. If they are bad laws, they need to be repealed or amended. If they are good laws; they need to be enforced and we need to fund their enforcement adequately. But this growing cancer of widespread, open disrespect for the law -- exemplified by the massive unchecked influx of illegal aliens and by legislative attempts to give them all a "pass," and reinforced by the revolving doors of many jails and prisons, will lead America nowhere it wants to go.
See a satirical tongue-in-cheek graphic titled “The Big-Attitudes” which updates the Biblical Beatitudes to fit the Paris Hilton fiasco…here:
www.thoughttheater.com
Posted by: Daniel DiRito | June 09, 2007 at 02:47 PM
See a satirical tongue-in-cheek graphic titled “The Big-Attitudes” which updates the Biblical Beatitudes to fit the Paris Hilton fiasco…here:
www.thoughttheater.com
Posted by: Daniel DiRito | June 09, 2007 at 02:48 PM