…And it will save the taxpayers of Virginia

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 2014.

Irony – “an event or result that is the opposite of what is expected.”  That word came into focus the other night as the local Richmond newscast reported that disgraced former Governor Robert McDonnell’s defense team countered the Federal Probation sentencing recommendation with a request for leniency and “community service”.  The defense recommendation noted “”serving in community service will save Virginia’s taxpayers over $300,000 in a decade.”  Hey Governor Bob, no kidding!! Yet, when you had that power, that ability, to commute sentences of non-violent felons doing time in Virginia’s prisons, you said no.  You wouldn’t intercede even when the sentence was harsh, even when the offender was remorseful, even when the taxpayers were paying over $25,000 each year just to keep the prisoner locked up.  You wouldn’t act courageously, justly, mercifully.  And now, with your own life’s house of cards collapsed around you, with no acknowledgement of guilt on your part, you ask for the very thing you denies so many.  Irony.

“Give mercy, and mercy will be given to you.  Forgive as your Father has forgiven you.”  Pretty clear words.  The meaning of those words so often escapes us.  Some call it Gospel Karma.  We continue to be legalistic.  We see fallen behavior, we rush to condemn and demand “justice”.  But our definition of justice, typically extracted in years and “pounds of flesh” is the exact opposite of the “word”.  “Law and order”. “tough on crime”, “truth in sentencing”, all make great campaign slogans until the man handcuffed before the court is your son, your friend, or you.  Those simple words, the Biblical admonitions are a reminder – and a warning – that the standards you set for others will one day be applied to you.  “But I’m not like him”, you say.  You may be – in God’s eyes where “all sin and fall short”.

Governor McDonnell had the power – and the opportunity – to make a huge difference in the lives of thousands of Virginia’s incarcerated, me included.  He could have said there are too many first-time felons doing too many years in Virginia’s prison system for nonviolent felonies.  He could have personally read the letters sent to him by the friends and families of hundreds of these inmates; he could have examined their incarceration records and seen evidence of genuine remorse and change.  Instead, he allowed those sentences to stand.  Worse, he ignored these men and women’s pleas while he was engaged in his own wrongdoing.  And now he prepares for his own day in court, his own sentencing. And, I’m sure he wonders, will the judge listen to him, to his family and friends, as a plea for sentencing mercy is made.  Ironic, isn’t it?

I believe there is no purpose served by sending Robert McDonnell to prison.  If U.S. District Judge James Spencer were to ask me, I would simply tell him, “Do not send this man to serve time”.  There is not purpose to it.  McDonnell has already been punished.  He has been convicted by a jury of Virginians.  His reputation, damaged; his family problems bared; his marriage is in shambles; his law career ruined.  Nothing is penologically served by now sending this broken man to a low-custody Federal prison.  No, Robert McDonnell does not deserve incarceration, any more than hundreds of men I’ve met these past six and a half years who are watching calendars turn, day upon day, month to month, year after year; in a warped dance called justice.  Perhaps showing Governor McDonnell justice with mercy will be the beginning of real corrections, real prison reform, real justice.  Perhaps another Governor is watching and thinking, “There but for the grace of God – and a rabid prosecutor – go I.”

February 3, 2009.  I was sentenced that day in a courtroom packed with friends who took the stand and asked the court to show me mercy.  My two assistants sat with coworkers.  Across from them, my parents and my retired minister sat.  They heard a community leader tell the court how I had turned the local Meals on Wheels around from a state of financial collapse.  Letters from church and community members were presented.  Each letter, each person who spoke, asked the court to show me mercy.

And then I stood before the court.  I have never felt so alone, so broken, so ashamed.  I had written a brief statement.  In it, I minced no words.  I wasn’t nuanced.  I admitted I broke the law – the same words I spoke the day I was arrested.  I apologized to my employer, my family, my friends, the court.  I bluntly told the court I failed my wife, my sons, my parents, my moral code.  I told the court I deserved prison.  I asked the judge to instead show me mercy.  Give me an opportunity to make right my wrongs. 

My words fell on deaf ears.  Within moments of my remarks ending, the court handed down my sentence.  There were gasps and weeping from friends, from my “girls”, my two assistants who’d each been with me over ten years.  Me?  I stood there, said “thank you” to the judge and walked out of the court.  You know what else?  My head was up.  I had spoken from the heart, told the truth.

Within a month I was served with divorce papers.  Would a shorter sentence have saved our marriage?  I don’t know.  I don’t know if she could have ever forgiven me for the betrayal.  Still, how do you ask someone to stay for fifteen years?  Within a month, I was assigned my DOC number.  I was now “in the system”.  Less than four months later, I was in a cell with a gangleader doing 76 years for murder, in the oxymoron known as DOC receiving at Powhatan. 

No, Bob McDonnell doesn’t deserve all that.  He deserves mercy…just like a lot of us in here.

 

 

Jeremiah Calling

            We don’t like bad news. We especially don’t like being told we’ve got it wrong. That isn’t some modern, twitter-age shortcoming of we humans. It goes back to the beginning of creation. We don’t like people to tell us our assumptions are wrong.

            So God approaches this guy named Jeremiah and God says, “I need you to tell my people they’re off track. I’m dropping the hammer on them Jerry. They’ll be over-run, exiled, and feel abandoned and hopeless …” And Jeremiah hears God but doesn’t say, “Whoa Big Guy. I’m not telling them that. I’m not gonna be the bearer of bad news.” No, he does what God tells him. He goes to the King and the leaders of Israel and delivers God’s message … and they throw him in a well.

            Yeah, we don’t like being given bad news. We don’t like being told we aren’t “all that.” We like to think we are moral and just even as the evidence begs to differ. We react in outrage at cultural disagreements and demand “justice” – which really means punishment – for a host of crimes, yet we don’t consider the ramifications of our tough talk or tougher code of conduct. And then Jeremiah shows up and tells us we’re wrong and we get angry.

            Almost thirty years ago, a mid-forties, released Federal inmate began a second act in his life writing and speaking about the transformative power of God and the believer’s duty to minister to the outcasts and apply God’s principles to their lives. As long as the released inmate kept his words focused on the fallen repenting he was applauded. But, when he took on “conventional wisdom” on issues of wealth and law and order, well it was Jeremiah all over again. It’s always so much easier seeing the splinter in the eye of the poor, black kid charged with drug dealing or robbery than it is to see the plank in our own eye. Chuck Colson wouldn’t let people of faith do that. And, his words from the eighties are as relevant today as they were then.

            “The delusion which vote-hungry politicians perpetuate – that crime can be cured by simple panaceas – is dangerous. It diverts us from the real issue and makes the problem worse …

            The only way to combat the demagoguery … is for Christians to work for laws, which apply biblical standards to criminal justice issues. Though the Bible does not prescribe prison as punishment, restitution is called for often … And most important we must clearly discern the truth about the nature of man …”

            I work with prisoners as a prisoner. Yes, I broke the law, as did almost every other prisoner I have met. And people must be held accountable for their actions. Society cannot condone one who steals from their employer and violates work place trust. I broke the law, I am guilty, and I must be punished, I must be held accountable. But Colson asks, where is the correlation between holding me accountable and making my employer whole, and showing the sufficiency of the law. Prison does not do that. Anyone who thinks good comes from places like this is deluding themselves.

            Justice is not a tool which the majority – or the ones in power – can exert based on their own biases. Justice – true justice – is manifested in the righteousness of God. I say this without any reservation: “WWJD,” What would Jesus do? He would forgive the remorseful murderer and embezzler and say, as He did to the law-breaking adulterous woman, “go and sin no more.” But those who in their self-righteousness allow and support a soul-breaking, vile, violent system like the corrections apparatus in America, he would compare to the Pharisees who are still blind.

            Harsh words; harsh judgment. The truth is sometimes harsh. I’ve been in here almost six years. I’m not a “better” person because of prison, but in spite of it. I am the man God understood me to be all along. And my mistakes and my transgressions – while many – were not enough to separate me from the love and redeeming grace of God.

            Right now this facility is awash in drugs – any kind of drugs. You can buy weed, pills, heroin, and more on the yard. Does anyone with an ounce of sense think that volume of drugs comes in through the visitation room? No, they are brought in by dirty officers and staff supplementing their state pay on the backs of the incarcerated. It is a corrupt, dirty system and we hide behind words like “justice” and “corrections” when those words mean nothing inside prison.

            During the Second World War American General George S Patton’s Third Army raced across Europe and into Germany. It was elements from the Third Army who first came across the Nazi concentration camps. General Patton contacted the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, who personally viewed the atrocities. He then ordered citizens from surrounding German towns to walk through the facilities. “We didn’t know what was going on,” was a familiar cry from the German populace.

            “We didn’t know.” I know what that means. Until I found myself on the other side of the jail door I had no idea what prison was. Then I saw it first hand – the dirt, the violence, the waste of time and life. There is a reason, I am convinced, that Jesus included “you never visited me in prison” in His parable about the wise kind who divides His flock between those who minister to the exiled and those who don’t. He’s telling us “we didn’t know” is not an excuse.

            There are two college professors who come here each week to teach classes. Both are remarkable women. They could be on campus teaching. They choose instead to teach the men here. And it’s not easy. Teaching a class inside requires special preparations. Nothing comes in without prior permission. Then, there are the pat downs and the metal detectors just to get inside the fence.

            And their first few times in, they don’t know what to expect. There are men in class who 

haven’t been outside the walls for twenty or more years; there are men who have done horrendous things to land here. Still, these two women – and at least a half dozen other men and women from the local college – come here and teach; they educate men whom most of society has written off. They do it and they find meaning in their calling; and, they make a difference in spite of the walls.

            Prison has never made someone a better person. But, someone who’s willing to teach you – even in a place like this – they can, they do, make a difference, in spite of what prison tries to destroy. And what of the rest of us? In 1981, Charles Colson, went from successful White House lawyer to Federal inmate then lay minister and writer with Prison Fellowship wrote a stirring and controversial op ed piece on the public’s apathy toward the violence and degradation running rampart in America’s prisons.

            In the piece, he described in graphic detail the rape and murder of a young violent felon in Illinois. He marveled at the lack of interest this tragic story generated. Where, he wondered, were people of faith? He wrote this:

            “Our Christian conscience must force us to act. We must go to public officials – judge and legislators – and demand in the name of our Lord that reforms be made – jails cleaned up, sentencing practices changed …”

            Jeremiah ended up in a well for telling the people of Israel what they didn’t want to hear. And Jesus, well He was castigated by the religious elite in His society for associating – even seeking out – the thieves, harlots, and lepers. They tried to silence His voice with a cross. It didn’t turn out the way the elite expected in either case.

            Russian literary giant Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who chronicled his imprisonment in the Soviet Union in The Gulag Archipelago, wrote the following:

            “I can say bless you, prison, for having been in my life. For there I caught a glimpse of God’s view of His world and His passion for justice and righteousness.”

            There is bad news: Virginia is spending over $1 billion each year to imprison nearly 400,000 men and women, over half of whom are guilty of nonviolent crimes. Half of those behind bars lack even a high school education. One-third suffer from some sort of alcohol, drug, or mental health disease yet there is little to no treatment available behind bars. Of those who leave each year, one out of three will return within a year of release.

            Inside Virginia’s prisons every street gang has a presence. New members are recruited weekly. Drug use, theft, rape, and even murder occur with much too regularity. Bizarre, quasi-religions based on racial separation, flourish.

            It isn’t a pretty picture. But people still come out here and try to make a difference. People like the two teachers I mentioned. And there is good news. Prison will never help you succeed, but some people in here will succeed – in spite of this place. If you read this blog remember those men and women behind bars. Maybe they deserved to be punished; then again maybe the punishment doled out in prison isn’t deserved. What is the obligation people of faith have when they hear about life inside prison? Jeremiah’s calling with the answer.

Raising Caine

As usual, what happens in prison in the name of “justice” turns out to be a caricature of everything wrong with calling this place a “corrections” center.  The people who run this place, the people in charge of the Department of Corrections, cut corners, use threats of investigation and going to “the hole” to intimidate, and daily break the very rules they put in place to comply with constitutionally dictated minimum standards of conduct.  It’s all done in the name of corrections. It’s all done in the name of justice.  And, it’s all done wrong.

On Wednesday, “Caine” – named for his dealership expertise in powdery substance – was led out of the building in handcuffs and taken to the hole.  He’s under investigation for “inciting a riot”.  Next to murder or sexual assault, no charge in prison is as serious as inciting a riot.  But, inciting a riot doesn’t mean mayhem.  No, in prison-speak inciting a riot means attempting to organize any collective action on the part of the inmate population.

Inmates are prohibited from organizing.  There can be no petitions for redress of grievances; no hunger strikes, sit downs, work stoppages, collective requests to the administration.  Anyone caught engaging in that behavior is subject to immediate “isolation confinement”, having your good time taken, and seeing your security level raised to “max”.  In short, you end up at Red Onion (Virginia’s notorious level 6 Max security prison). 

So what did Caine do to incite a riot?  In January, the Warden sent out a memorandum announcing that inmates were no longer permitted to own weight lifting gloves.  “All gloves must be shipped home through property or disciplinary charges will follow.”  So Caine did the right thing.  He filed a grievance.  In it, he noted that the Constitution does not allow property to be taken by the Government “without due process granted and just compensation paid” (sounds like a lawyer wrote that doesn’t it?).  Caine pointed out that DOC’s own regulations require it to compensate an inmate when property legitimately purchased is later ruled contraband.

Thirty days after every inmate mailed their gloves home without compensation, the Warden found in Caine’s favor.  He was reimbursed.

Caine realized no one else had been paid.  So, he had a contact make dozens of copies of the grievance decision with his name blacked out.  And, he gave copies to guys in every building.  And just like that inmates around the compound began to request reimbursement.

“Where’d you get the copies?” they asked him as they were going through his stuff and hauling him away.  Making copies, you see, is also prohibited.  Information is power.  Information exposes the reality of this disgustingly pathetic, failed system.

Later that afternoon, I was assisting our computer class when the investigators came through.  They went back to the school office and pulled Craig in.  “You making copies for people?”  Of course Craig wasn’t.  Neither he, nor I, would jeopardize what we’re doing at the school.  Still, the heat Craig felt was real.  Get guys to snitch, tie the school in, ruin the educational opportunities being related.  It happens all the time.  It’s a constant battle.  Ignorance drives most of the criminal behavior evidenced by the inmate population.  Ignorance is job security for the rank and file who work at DOC.

As I write this Caine sits in isolation.  He’ll be fine.  He’s done twelve years already.  He knows in a week or two he’ll be back in college classes.  He didn’t incite a riot.

The same day Todd received his “update sheet”.  Update sheets are the summary of our annual review.  They are based on a 100 point scale.  Hold a job?  20 points.  Have a vocational/treatment plan and meet the terms?  40 points .  Stay infraction free?  40 points.  Everything included in the annual review, including the setting and awarding of security level and good time earning level is controlled by a department operating procedure, DOP 830.3.  Prisons may not arbitrarily act for or against any prisoner; that is a fundamental tenet of the law.  Depriving a man (or woman) of their freedom does not give the government carte blanche to do anything they want.  DOC must follow due process and 830.3 sets out specifically what must be done.

But rules are regularly ignored and violated by the administration.  In Todd’s case, last March he received two charges:  one a 200 series charge for crossing a restricted line.  The second charge was for taking an onion from the chow hall.  This was always considered a series 200 contraband charge until two days before Todd was caught.  Then, it was elevated to a 100 series “stealing charge” (question:  how do you steal food off your tray?).

So Todd wore two charges.  And 830.3 specifically states that a 200 series charge leads to a 10 point deduction and a nonviolent 100 series charge leads to a 20 point deduction.  And 830.3 further states you must have 85 points (minimum) to earn full good time (4.5 days per month).  70 points to 85 and you earn 3 days per month.  Under 60, no earned good time.

So Todd works all year; he becomes a certified dog handler; he completes the IT program with honors and becomes A+ certified (a national IT certification); and, he gets admitted to a four-year Virginia university on his release.

But, his counselor and the administration change his good time level.  They don’t deduct 30 points based on his charges as DOP 830.3 requires.  No, they deduct 50 points.  Why?  The counselor told him, “we’re not gonna give you full credit for school because you pulled these charges.”  That’s not what 830.3 says.  Their response?  You’ll have to make Richmond tell us.”

Ironic isn’t it.  Governor McDonnell tells the press “inmates have civil rights” then his corrections department personnel act in illegal ways to “manage” the facilities.  Disrespect for their own rules breeds disrespect in the inmate population.  It’s time people outside demand better from those paid to enforce the law and guard the rights of citizens, even the incarcerated.  It’s time to “raise caine” for real justice, even in the prisons.

Lying About Justice

There are consequences for your behavior.  “We tell our kids that.  Hell, Judges say the same thing when they sentence you (my Judge said “I don’t know which man is before me, the one who did so much good in the community or the one who stole...”).  Why is it then, in the name of “justice” that we tolerate public officials lying about crime, sentences and public safety?  Isn’t it time our elected officials (and those hired to manage public agencies) are held to the same standards they so self-righteously espouse?  This week that issue came to mind as I read about Virginia Governor McDonnell’s decision to close Mecklenburg Corrections Center and Judge Timothy Sanner’s sentencing of former Goochland Treasurer Brenda Grubbs for her guilty plea to embezzling in excess of $200,000.

As a matter of self-disclosure, I was sentenced by Judge Sanner.  As I’ve detailed numerous times in the pages of this blog, I volunteered all information about my case, cooperated fully with the prosecution and pled guilty to six counts (five embezzlement and one forgery of public record).  Shortly before my sentencing hearing began, a young man appeared for his sentencing.  This early twenties male was in jail for a third DUI.  The third arrest involved an accident – his friend was killed.  This young man was entered in an alcohol treatment program at the jail.  The Judge, noting he’d completed twelve of eighteen months of the program gave this young man only the remaining six months to complete the program.

I don’t begrudge a lenient sentence to this young man.  Prison wouldn’t bring back his dead friend, nor is prison the place to address an obvious alcohol problem, but how do you sentence a man who has caused a death to a total of 18 months and turn around and sentence another man to 15 years for embezzling from a profitable company (which, coincidentally, is politically well connected in your jurisdiction)?

Brenda Grubbs was the Treasurer of Goochland County.  Married for 30 plus years to a local farmer, Ms. Grubbs embezzled over $200,000 from county funds while carrying out a romantic, internet liaison with a Nigerian con artist.  Sanner allowed Ms. Grubbs out on bond while her case was pending (a luxury I was not afforded).  Then came sentencing day.  Both her husband (who has stood by her) and minister testified on her behalf.

A request was made to allow her to report after the holidays and begin serving her four year imposed sentence.  The Judge rejected the request.  Why?  Because, Judge Sanner noted “defendant is deeply depressed and in need of mental health services”.  Sending her to prison will not address her mental health issues.  In fact, sending her to prison will hurt her mental health.

If a primary purpose of the criminal justice system is the creation of remorse, then the mere process – in cases such as Ms. Grubbs and mine – is enough to create the desired results.  The problem with pronouncement from the bench such as those made by Judge Sanner is they are completely devoid of truth.  He doesn’t have the guts to say “I want to punish you, ruin your family, make you a financial drain on the state because I can.”  Instead he says some quasi – Solomonese statement about justice.

Here’s a message for Judge Sanner and the others who hand down sentences:  justice does not exist in a vacuum.  Justice always includes mercy.  No Judge should serve on the bench without spending a week in the “corrections” system to understand the “consequences” of their decisions.  And, spare us the moral platitudes from the bench.  If morals and righteous behavior were pre-requisites to serving as a judge, there’d be nothing but vacancies.

And then there is the McDonnell Administration announcing the closing of the prison in Mecklenburg County.  The real reason for the closing – Pennsylvania removing 1,000 inmates from Virginia’s Green Rock Prison and cancelling the $20 million annual lease – was correctly set out in the opening sentence.  But then, McDonnell’s spokespeople veered off into the great sea of subterfuge and misstatement.

Closing Mecklenburg and sending those inmates to Green Rock “will save approximately $10,000 per inmate on an annual basis”; the Governor said (“currently it costs $29,562 per year, per inmate housed at Mecklenburg; that cost will shrink to $19,213 at Green Rock”).  “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”  Virginia’s Department of Corrections holds approximately 39,000 inmates (two-thirds of whom are classified as “low custody”).  DOC’s budget is just north of $1 billion.  That equals a per inmate cost of $25,564 per year.  The old expression “numbers don’t lie, but liars use numbers” seems to have been created by governmental bureaucrats to justify their complete lack of cost efficiency and effectiveness and candor.

Here are the facts:  it costs money, lots of money to operate and maintain a prison.  It is labor intensive.  The reason Green Rock wasn’t being used, the reason James River, Brunswick and Southampton were closed (along with a number of other facilities) was simply due to cost.  On average, it takes $25 million annually to operate a 1,000 bed prison in Virginia.  That the Commonwealth is now – by their own acknowledgement – at 137% of adequate bed capacity in corrections is just further evidence of the failure and lies perpetrated in the name of public safety.

Governor McDonnell stated, “In these difficult times, it is incumbent upon DOC and state government to ensure that public safety continues to be paramount and, while doing so, to be the best stewards of taxpayer’s money.”

Nice words Governor.  Problem is, prisons do not ensure public safety.  And, as I have repeatedly documented in the pages of this blog, DOC spending is a sinking hole.  Money doesn’t go for programs to end recidivism.  Money doesn’t even go to create secure facilities.  Virginia’s prisons are rife with crime, violence, disease, dishonest officers and administrators, and a glaring lack of creative programs and hope.

Governor McDonnell’s closing announcement was nothing but his political attempt to dress up the economic tsunami striking Virginia after years of lies about its public safety and corrections “successes”.

I broke the law.  I was told there were consequences for my actions.  Fair enough.  Its high time Judges and Governors are held to the same standard.

A Passing Thought

My close friend in here, Craig, is having a very difficult weekend.  Earlier today, he broke down, tears rolling down his cheeks.  As I’ve noted before in this blog, men try to not show pain.  It’s viewed as a sign of weakness in this Darwinian nightmare where survival of the fittest takes on new meaning.  That we trust one or two guys who we can open up to is a testament to the human spirit.

Craig learned two days ago that his girlfriend, a woman who has stayed by him throughout the first seven years of his twelve year sentence, has breast cancer.  It is an aggressive form and, though not yet in her lymph glands, requires her to undergo a double mastectomy this week.  Craig feels helpless.  He can’t be there for her.  All he can do is listen on the phone, offer as much love and support as you can when you’re separated by 400 miles and barbed wire fences.  And, he must maintain.  He can’t show weakness; he can’t show emotion.  He has to act like he’s holding it together.  All the while, his mind races, his emotions churn and he feels helpless.

This is a terrible environment, a dehumanizing environment an unjust an unmerciful environment in so many ways.  It is even worse when you are here and those who love you, who need you, are outside.  You are alone with your thoughts and the feelings of helplessness and despair can be insurmountable.

I wish you could see what I see in here.  For the vast majority of those incarcerated are not “bad people”.  They are people who simply made a mistake.  And some mistakes are worse than others.  Yet, in God’s eyes we all fall short.  My eyes have been opened so many times in here as I’ve watched men grieve, love, suffer, battle.  There is humanity behind these walls.  And, just like the real world, there is good and evil doing battle daily.

Humanity.  Justice.  Mercy.  Compassion.  We throw those words around so much yet think so little about what they truly mean, what is required of all of us to live according to those principles.

Craig and Tammy are in my prayers.  I ask that they be in yours as well.  And pray for the prisoners, all of them.  Pray for a better way, for real justice, real mercy, real compassion.

Back to Basics

Most of our building was tuned in the other day as the jury returned their verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial.  Guys in prison watch trials.  We read about the crimes and form opinions.  As the Anthony verdict was handed down, to a man the consensus was she at least knew something about what happened to her daughter but the prosecution overreached on the capital murder charge.

I watched the verdict with mixed emotions.  I was disgusted by the allegations that a mom could actually kill her own child.  But, I was more disgusted with the circus atmosphere that took over cable news as various “talking head” lawyers belittled the process and told us what the evidence meant.  This created a feeding frenzy in the public.  Obviously, the girl was a slut who killed her daughter in cold blood.  Or so, the public was led to believe as more and more “details” emerged about her behavior and her family dynamics.  And charlatans like Nancy Grace drew paychecks from CNN by calling the accused “Top Mom”. Where, I wondered, was the rush to remind people in America you are “innocent until proven guilty”?  Yeah, we say that and a whole lot of other cute clichés like “justice for all” and “one nation, under God”, then we go out and ignore the very definition of those terms.

As the verdict was preparing to be read here’s what I saw:  a scared young woman who was totally and completely alone, who had absolutely no control over her life.  I know that feeling; I’ve been there; and, I don’t wish that on anyone.  Ironically, the morning the verdict was to be rendered I read a portion of Chapter 23 in the Gospel of Matthew.  In the passage, Jesus is skewering the hypocrisy of the “law abiding” citizens of the day (the Pharisees and Sadducees) for being frauds.  In the Modern Language Bible it says:

“You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment – the absolute basics! – you carelessly take it or leave it…the basics are required.”

We have so distorted the meaning of justice in this country that we somehow feel justified protesting in front of a courthouse because a jury decided to find a young mother not guilty of capital murder rather than executing her.  And the people who are protesting don’t know unequivocally that she did it.  None of us do.  Ultimately, only the perpetrator and God know.

How, I ask, is “justice served” by killing this woman?  Perhaps the most profound thing I heard throughout this entire sordid episode was when her attorney, after the verdict said:

“We have to stop thinking killing is a legitimate punishment for killing.”
 
Justice, dear readers, requires wholeness and restoration and forgiveness.  Our prisons are full, our court dockets clogged with millions of people who are being subjected to a justice system that is quick to emphasize guilt and punishment and dismally poor when it comes to dispensing Godly justice.

The sad fact is, as much as we hate to admit it; we are all similar to Casey Anthony.  I don’t mean we all ignore a missing child for 31 days or we become pathologic with our lies.  But all of us do wrong things from time to time.  Even Mother Teresa took contributions from notorious drug lords rationalizing that while the money may be dirty; God’s use for it was clean.

Here’s my hope.  That we lose interest in other people’s misfortunes.  We allow the judicial system to work the way it’s supposed to work.  And, we demand the police and prosecutors act within the law and ethically.  We ignore these loudmouths on the tube who profess to know so much.  Finally, we remember God has the final say.  And how we judge others is how we will be judged.

I stood in a courtroom two and a half years ago and heard a Commonwealth Attorney make false statements about me and a judge ignore my remorse.  I take no joy in anyone’s misfortune.  I learned that day that all of us could find ourselves in a situation that goes horribly awry.  And the last thing we want - or need - are people passing judgment on our behavior when they haven’t walked a day in our shoes.

It’s time, Jesus said, to get back to the basics.  That’s true justice.