Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian novelist once said, "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." This is from someone who's been there. He's known the cruelty and oppression society can inflict on those who are considered somehow below the societal norm. I'm quoting Dostoevsky in today's blog because of an intriguing article in the Wall St. Journal yesterday. The article is entitled "Making Punishments Fit the Most Offensive Crimes". The conservative Wall St. Journal owned by Rupert Murdoch ran a piece yesterday about federal judges beginning to question and criticize the mandatory minimum sentences handed down for certain sexual offenses such as possession of internet child pornography. Normally, this type of piece is published in more progressive journalistic outlets yet the Journal writes the following:
"These acts alone are disgusting to most people. But not everyone buys into the idea that they warrant two decades or more in prison. Federal judges around the country are speaking out against what they view as harsh mandatory and recommended sentences, spurred by Congress in recent years.
The sentencing guidelines for child pornography crimes "do not appear to be based on any sort of [science] and the Court has been unable to locate any particular rationale for them beyond the general revulsion that is associated with child exploitation-related offenses," wrote Robert W. Pratt, a U.S. district judge in Des Moines, Iowa, in a case earlier this year. In that case, he gave a seven-year sentence to one defendant, even though the advisory guidelines called for a minimum of roughly 18 years."
This is what criminal trial lawyers have been saying for years. The punishments don't fit the crime. In most of these Internet porn cases, the courts have been bowing to political pressure from the right to impose unduly harsh sentences that don't fit the crime.
I wonder what Dostoevsky would do?
Leave a comment