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Originally Posted by lookout123
Kitsune - do you really believe that the "justice system" is about Justice, or more an exercise in legal maneuvering over a thinly veiled agenda? i tend to believe the second is true for the most part - on both sides of the legal/political spectrum. i believe justice was removed as the central focus many years ago.
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This is an interesting question and what I see in the legal system is probably why I've been arguing the points I have. My view a lot of cases, I notice that a lot of the sentances tend to not attempt to repair what has been done, but rather just throw someone in jail. I understand that is what civil trials are for and maybe because they don't make the news as often, I tend to see the jail time be the only correction made for the criminal's actions. While it attempts to "teach a lesson", act as a deterrent to others, and remove the criminal from society, I notice that the victims are left to piece their lives back together on their own. When my car was broken into, I was surprised to find that I was given two options that would decide what happened to the stereo thief: he could either go to jail and have a criminal record or could do community service work for 18 months and repay me for the money I had to pay to the insurance company.
The answer, to me, was obvious: why let someone rot in jail when they could be both contributing back to the society they once damaged and help me recover the costs they caused me to incur? This is why the death penalty, and a lot of the justice system, never made much sense. Why not keep the criminal around and force them not only to be out society but to also put effort and work back into the system they once worked to destroy?
Justice, to me, is about attempting to put things back the way they were. I know this isn't the real definition of it, but as a victim it is the way I'd most like to see it. Of course, with a murder there is nothing that can be done to restore life, but putting another person to death doesn't do anything in a positive direction, either.