America has a problem: Part 2
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Food for Thought
Judge of Probate Richard Dean
Maybe I should have made this three parts. Last month, I began addressing the problem that “Too many Americans are killed and/or injured due to violent crime.”
I showed the problem existed. I provided government and media data verifying America’s violent crime problem. Finally, I provided statistics supporting a significant impact on our lives. Impacts because of the burdens and constraints violent crime places on other police operations, available budgets and public services.
We must now analyze possible root causes of our problem. Many politicians, news media and talking heads argue guns are causing our problems with the solution being eliminating the guns. Last month, I left you with the question, “If we eliminated all guns, would that solve our problem?”
As a refresher, Department of Justice statistics showed there were 4,579,720 violent crimes committed between 2021-2024. Subtract the 364,000 incidents involving guns; we are left with 4,215,720 violent crimes.
Removing gun incidents leave 92% of the violent crimes committed. Therefore, my opinion is guns are not causing our violent crime problems, and removing guns is not the solution.
So, what is causing our problem? I start by asking, “What is the common element in every violent crime committed?” The answer is not guns, knives, cars, bottles, bricks, or other inanimate objects. The real and honest answer is simple. The common element in every violent crime is people. I believe a contributing factor is society.
The major news media often report the individual committing the crime had been repeatedly “reported” to law enforcement personnel. We hear the person had mental health issues. We hear the person often had a history, frequently violent, of criminal actions.
We hear the person should not have been on the streets. We hear that parents, family and/or friends should have done something to control the individual. We even see instances where parents and others are charged/sued for crimes a family member commits because “they should have known.”
These arguments are nothing more than talking points made for sound bites. By law, police nor judges can detain or limit personal freedom until a person commits an action warranting detention or limitation of personal freedom.
I listed three realizations we must face: One: Some people are mean or just plain evil. Two: Some are fanatics. Three: Some are mentally ill.
The people who commit violent crimes because of meanness, evil, or fanaticism must be dealt with through policing and the criminal courts. We must place more emphasis on victims’ rights and justice instead of placing most efforts on the perpetrator’s rights.
To do that, legislators need to enact laws making it easier for law enforcement personnel to do their jobs. We need legislation that unties the hands of judges and jurors who hear the facts and see the offenders. We need jurors and jurists to base decisions on facts only and not on ideologies or other outside influences. We must acknowledge the difference between a once-in-a-lifetime mistake and the habitual committing of crime.
We, society, must respect law enforcement, the judicial system, and place the blame where it lies: On the person committing the action. Also, prison life should be harsh enough to act as a deterrent to crime, not a place to become a better criminal. We created an “I’m the victim” society where we constantly protect the perpetrator instead of the victim. We are more concerned about words than actions, and everything has become a political football.
The National Institute of Justice reports almost 44% of criminals released from prison return within one year. Within three years 68% and within five years 77% are re-arrested.
In 2017, the U.S. Sentencing Commission released an in-depth study began in 1984 regarding federal recidivism. The study assigned categories and scores to predict the likelihood individuals would be reincarcerated. The report showed assault to be in the top two reasons for most re-arrests. The report is 44 pages long, mostly charts and graphs, and remarkably interesting. I encourage you to look it up and read it.
In the interest of space, let’s narrow our focus to crimes/actions committed by people with mental health issues since this is what my court normally sees.
America has a mental health crisis. We do not have the proper facilities to treat mental illness. There are no long-term mental health-care facilities to commit people who are not “really” criminals but are unable to be on their own.
There are mentally deficient individuals who are mostly non-violent but cannot take care of themselves or function in society without constant care and control. We have limited long-term mental health facilities for the criminally insane; however, those facilities are at capacity with long waiting lines.
We have no state-operated, long-term treatment facilities for the mentally impaired who are not criminals but can’t function on their own. There are nursing homes, but they do not have qualified staff with proper skills to deal with the mentally incapacitated who, because of their illness, occasionally become violent and often irrational.
We need long-term mental health facilities (not prisons) where the mentally ill (those who will never be independently functional without supervision) can be properly treated and guided to be productive and not become criminals. We need structured treatment plans to help them achieve their maximum functionality.
Instead, we have short-term treatment options where the mentally-deficient person is quickly returned to the streets – often literally. The laws prohibiting restricting a person’s freedom of movement, though well-intentioned, tie the hands of law enforcement and judges when dealing with the mentally ill. The person gets caught on a never-ending cycle through the system.
The cycle often involves regulating their medications and/or getting them off illegal drugs (self-medicating because of their illness) for 10-15 days and functioning to a point where they can be released. They aren’t “well” or truly functional, but we count them as a “success” because when released their behavior is better than when they arrived. We simply Band-Aid the symptoms and never fix the problems.
We see many good people in our courts who have never committed a serious or violent crime, but simply have a mental illness. However, without supervision they are doomed to repeatedly cycle through “the system.” Regrettably, they will be on that cycle until they commit a crime warranting incarceration or until they are dead. Usually either killed by suicide, mentally driven action, or someone who saw them as a threat.
Some mentally deficient individuals need long-term, structured, daily supervision to help them take medications, keep them safe and on track, integrate them into a controlled society, be productive, and live a semblance of a normal life.
This brings us to the problem analysis solution recommendations. I am requested to complete many surveys related to mental health situations I encounter. I usually never see any results of those surveys.
It is time we step to the plate and look for real, long-term solutions to our societal problems. It is time to address the real problems and quit using soundbites simply for political gain. Our inaction often creates/protects criminals and needlessly results in injury and, far too often, the loss/destruction of innocent lives.
We must demand laws allowing harsher sentencing for repeat offenders. We must establish state-operated, long-term mental health facilities for those who need them. We must change societal values to address problems, not symptoms; to create solutions, not sound bites.
I encourage you to contact your legislators, especially at the federal level, and demand they enact legislation that helps America deal with our societal and mental health issues.
We need laws that protect our law enforcement from physical abuse and have harsh penalties for those who attack them. We need to free our judges to issue sentences appropriate to the crime or need of the individual. We need the means to address and fix the mental health crisis.
Without good legislation that addresses all these items, none of our societal issues will be corrected. Our violent crime problems will increase. The mental health crisis will continue to grow and increasingly plague future generations. We need transformative solutions, not mollycoddling.
These are strictly my opinions, and hopefully they provided some food for thought. I encourage you to do your own research and contact your legislators to address concerns you may have on these subjects. Until next month, stay safe.
