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| Justin Bieber mugshot |
Carol Forsloff with Gordon Matilla---"He belongs in jail. He's no better than anyone else. Why should famous people get away with stuff, and other people can't." This summary judgment was overheard at a nearby table in a restaurant where a journalist and spouse sat eating lunch. People were discussing the accusations of rape against Bill Cosby and those of Justin Bieber's antics that had him arrested, then released after paying fines. And that judgment is echoed by many people, which is one of the reasons why the United States leads the world in the percentage of the population in jail.
It is also why so many people are preoccupied with jailing individuals, even for minor crimes.
While some people believe Bieber got off easy for his drunk driving, speeding and resisting arrest, others want to see him deported. Deportation is often the result of a country's view of an individual as being somehow a threat in relationship to crime or security. Would it therefore follow that Bieber should be deported? As for Cosby, if he were to be found guilty of rape, the date of any incident would have to be considered for any jail time to be the consequence.
Crimes and misdemeanors; there are many reasons why the United States puts folks in jail. The South leads the nation in incarceration rates, with eight out of the top ten states imprisoning people; but the rest of the country also has overcrowded conditions and attitudes from the population that reflect strong notions about punishment. In fact there are more African Americans in jail than in slavery in the 1860's.
The notion about jailing people goes back to certain fundamental beliefs about crime and punishment inherent in American culture. The most fundamental principle is often quoted as "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." But why is it that the United States leads the world in jailing its citizens, far more than its neighbor, Canada? And why are those whose crime is mostly related to drugs that are legal in some states and against the law in others given such harsh penalties relative to their "crimes?" These are the questions people ask as they wonder about the system of justice in a country that offers itself as a model for the rest of the world.
The New Yorker attempts to answer those questions about why the US is so quick to imprison its people. An article entitled, "The Caging of America" states, " Ours is, bottom to top, a “carceral state,” in the flat verdict of Conrad Black, the former conservative press lord and newly minted reformer, who right now finds himself imprisoned in Florida, thereby adding a new twist to an old joke: A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged; a liberal is a conservative who’s been indicted; and a passionate prison reformer is a conservative who’s in one."
In this discussion, it is not Bieber, the musician, that is an important topic, as celebrities seem to be in the news many times for drugs, sex and other issues. It is an attitude that calls for punishment even before the facts are known, and the outcry if the "right" verdict isn't given about a situation where the law maintains one is innocent until proven guilty.
