I had the chance to sit down with a co-worker, Sean Kelsey, Director of Operations at Xavier + Associates, a criminal defense firm in New York. He is an extremely passionate supporter for those who have experienced some of life’s biggest obstacles and now facing a long road to recovery in an unfair system. I asked him to explain why and below his story.
I recently had a conversation with middle-aged, homeless man, who is currently spending nights at the Rescue Mission in Syracuse, New York.
***Side note: The conversation was started simply by saying “Good Morning”, so I encourage if you are reading this, make it a habit to say good morning to a complete stranger each day, you never know what may come about it and how it may change your life for the positive.
After saying good morning, he asked me the question:
So you work for that law firm, huh?
My response simply was:
Sure do…need some help?
The gentleman asked if it was hard to work for a firm that focuses on representing people charged with drug and alcohol offenses. I decided to sit down and talk with him, skipping my morning coffee for something more. Something that may create a little more genuine energy than the caffeine at Starbucks had to offer.
I explained that it’s really hard to do what it is that we do, but likely not hard for the reasons most think. It’s not hard to talk with someone who has been arrested and accused the crime of drinking and driving or a drug offense, it’s listening to his or her stories, which makes it one of the most rewarding parts of my day. The hard part is when dealing with the criminal justice system, which leads to all of the most recent issues in the news.
I told him that I feel that these issues have always been there, however, we as a society have decided to ignore them, and the only reason they are coming to light is because of technology of cell phone videos and the fact that people are now gaining exposure.
In the recent case in North Carolina, the wife, rather than doing everything she can to help, to listen to the police, decided to record the incident, which ended in tragedy. I don’t want to make this article about the police, as I feel they have a difficult job and I have several friends who make a significant difference in the communities because of their amazing service.
But, it seems in today’s world where violence is a daily occurrence in the news, these acts are glorified by the media, which I feel is controlled to a large part, by the government. And as a result, if people want attention, they know how to obtain it, just replicate what you see in the news. Or, retaliate, at times violently, to what you see in the news, which doesn’t solve any problem, but creates more as meeting violence with violence usually doesn’t work.
But whom do we blame? I honestly feel we can blame our government.
To the many wars that we have fought and are currently fighting, when do we realize that meeting violence with more violence doesn’t work and innocent people and generations as a result are affected?
This leads me to point of this article; I blame the government’s focus on incarceration for many of the problems that we have toda, from some of the prosecutor’s lack of humility and view a case as win/loss efforts (again, not all as I know some very good prosecutors) vs. trying to provide justice; to the jail system. This fact hits home, as I have been watching an A&E TV show called “60 Days In”, which is a reality based show where people volunteer to go into jail for 60 days.
According to Federal Bureau of Prisons as of the end of August, 2016…more than 46.4% of the people incarcerated are for non-violent drug and alcohol crimes.
- Banking and Insurance, Counterfeit, Embezzlement: 586, 0.3%
- Burglary, Larceny, Property Offenses: 8,023, 4.4%
- Continuing Criminal Enterprise: 424, 0.2%
- Courts or Corrections: 760, 0.4%
- Drug/Alcohol Offenses: 83,982, 46.4%
- Extortion, Fraud, Bribery: 11,878, 6.6%
- Homicide, Aggravated Assault, Kidnapping Offenses: 5,554, 3.1%
- Immigration: 15,990, 8.8%
- Miscellaneous: 1,455, 0.8%
- National Security: 77, 0.0%
- Robbery: 6,850, 3.8%
- Sex Offenses: 15,027, 8.3%
- Weapons, Explosives, Arson: 30,469, 16.8%
In the show, just as shown above many of the people are incarcerated for non-violent crimes. In jail, they follow the jail code, which involves smuggling drugs in, perform sexual acts on other prisoners, trade for food or other commissary or else face the consequences, which usually involve violence against them, often with several people at once. Therefore, someone who is incarcerated for a non-violent crime, usually drugs as or alcohol, and clearly the largest population in our overcrowded prisons, do not get any treatment or education to help resolve the issue that created their incarceration, they learn how to become violent. All jail does is ensure that the recidivism rate continues to increase as shown from the department of justice that in a 10 year period the re-arrest rate increased for drug offenders by 16.3% for a whopping 66.7% recidivism rate.
This all leads to a more, educated individual, who doesn’t get educated into helping society, but how to hurt society when they are released.
Are we are all responsible for our actions? Yes. I understand this. I also understand that if someone does something to my daughter or to my family/friends, that I want them punished, likely more than the law will even be able to punish, because it becomes personal to me. And for serious, violent offenses, for which is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, there is a place for individuals to be incarcerated.
But if for a moment, if we look at the big picture, with humility, understanding, and a conscience, I ask, what does incarceration really do, who is really hurt by incarceration? It doesn’t undo any crime that has been committed; it clearly is shown that once incarcerated, they likely will only be a better criminal only to victimize someone else, affecting not only person, their family, but also multiple victims.
If we are going to incarcerate someone for a non-violent crime, let’s not treat them like animals, because if they do, they will respond and react like animals. Provide them programs to exercise more, provide them counseling to discuss the issues, provide them treatment needed, medication if applicable, provide them resources to obtain a trade, show them the alternatives to what created them to be incarcerated so that they can make a difference and show them that, they matter.
It seems easier for someone to get a jail bunk than to receive treatment, even when then are asking for treatment. In our society, if someone is acknowledging there is a problem and they want treatment, they shouldn’t be turned away. Because if you turn an addict away for long enough, they will commit a crime, they will likely be convicted as its proven that many of the wrongfully convicted are lower income individuals, being represented by overworked, underpaid, under resourced public defenders…the question is, once they commit this crime, will they be turned away from jail, as they were turned away from a rehabilitation center?
That’s the long-winded response to the homeless gentleman who simply asked; “why I work for the law firm that I do.” And I think most in the legal world would agree; we need to focus more time and resources on criminal justice reform and stop placing an unending tally of people being thrown into prison cells with no rehabilitation. So the answer is simple: more rehabilitation and less incarceration.