ction. But I submit that such a philosophical foundation is flawed. Revenge while understandable from an individual human perspective is not a proper basis for society's response to the misbehavior of its laws. This human urge to punish should be removed from the current system and replaced with methods of restrictions that utilize the offender's potential to benefit his victim and society at large. In other words, in a free society the end desired is the correction of behavior that utilizes the least force . This conforms to the principles of limited government, efficiency, reduced cost, and personal freedom as advocated by both liberals and conservatives alike. The basic underlying concept of this proposal is that incarceration should be reserved for those who are violent and thus dangerous to the public. Violent crimes would be defined broadly to include any act or attempt to injure the person of another except by accident. This would therefore range from murder to driving under the influence with current distinctions of misdemeanor and felony offenses remaining in place. The court sentencing procedures would also be modified to exclude incarceration for non-violent crimes with an emphasis on victim restitution and community service. The court would maybe rely on probation reports to provide the necessary offender personal history including employment, job skills (or lack of), and personal resources, e.g. bank accounts, property ownership, etc. Based on this information, the court would apply the appropriate sentence of victim restitution and community service with close monitoring by probation officials. As with all human endeavors, compliance by offenders would most likely not be 100%. The threat of incarceration would have to exist for those failing to submit to or comply with court ordered repayment and public service. Many will not ...
