I kind of like the idea of letting the punishment fit the crime if it is possible. Like the judge that ordered a couple who threw two kittens out of their moving car because they did not want them. The kitties died of course. Their punishment, along with a fine, was that they had to work in an animal shelter cleaning cages, feeding, and grooming the animals, both the cats and the dogs. That seems fair to me.
I don't know what we would do for other crimes though...Maybe...
Stealing = a fine + must give
all their electronics to Charity?
Drunk Driving = a BIG fine, revocation of license + 12 months of having to clean-up in a morgue?
Steal a car = no license, fine, + not allowed on public transportation, no driving or riding in another car, must WALK everywhere..(don't know how you would enforce it,:rotfl
Embezzlement = pay back every cent + must live at a homeless shelter for 24 months cleaning and cooking etc. ?
Dog fighting/cruelty to animals? BIG fine and clean up after the elephants at the zoo...
That's great.
Or... instead of leaning on our own understanding and making up our own rules, we could look to the example our Creator has set, and go by that.
There is a way which seems right to man, but leads to death. A very large part of our criminal justice system is based on the opinions and imaginings of fallible men in an ancient, pagan culture, not the teaching handed down by the Lord through His infallible holy scripture. And the result is a crime epidemic vastly beyond what we should have to put up with. And that is a curse not only on the victims in our society, but upon those who choose criminal behavior who would not have done so if we had a genuinely appropriate and just system in place that would have dissuaded them in the first place.
After all, the law is a teacher. And our legal system today teaches people to disrespect and flaunt the law in virtually every area of life. It teaches people not only to think they have some kind of "right" to break the law as long as they can get away with it, but it even teaches people to get angry at
other people for not breaking the law
enough! (How recently have you gotten mad at a driver in front of you because they were going "only" 5 mph over the speed limit, and you wanted them to go 9 or 12 or 15 over?) It teaches people that they have a "right" to a lawyer, and they have a "right" to have 12 ignorant and untrained people dragged in off the street, stuck in a room against their will and ordered to vote on what the truth is, all in the name of "justice." It teaches people that it's okay for the prosecutor, the defense attorney and the judge to all conspire together to suborn perjury from you in the form of a "plea deal" which will accuse you of some lesser crime that
everyone in the courtroom knows never even happened. It teaches people to expect everyone in the courtroom
except the witness on the stand to lie regularly as a part of their job because they are not held to account for perjury, and even the witness on the stand will get a slap on the wrist if they're caught. It teaches people that they should expect "justice" to be carried out agonizingly slowly, even over years and years.
It teaches people that if you are one of the exceedingly rare people who does end up on "death row," you will probably die there of natural causes before you ever see an execution.
It teaches people that if someone rapes you or maims you, then
you will have to help pay for
their room and board, medical and dental, free entertainment and library and internet and legal counsel for who knows how many years.
And it teaches people that if you molest a child, you can expect to be out and molesting other children within five years, even after your THIRD OFFENSE, even after you have caused physical injury to the last child you molested, even after you have molested multiple children at once.
The law in America is a horrendous teacher, and we see its effect on the rotting soul of our society. It began with ill-conceived notions based on good intentions, and it has become a black cancer eating us up inside.
There is a way that seems right to man, but leads to death. Our nation's criminal justice system is a major factor in the internal destruction of our culture and our way of life, and of the spiritual well-being of millions of people.
