In the previous post I received a comment about crime being a moral problem. That is absolutely correct with a very important caveat. Crime is a moral problem unless the law itself is immoral. Think about both the Soviet era and Nazi era laws that required citizens to turn in otherwise moral people based on their religion. In the same vein think about when St. Peter and St. John were dragged before the authorities and said that they must refuse to obey. And, think about the Prophet Daniel and the Three Young Men when they refused to obey the king. Some laws must be disobeyed in order to stay moral.
However, in this case, we are not talking about the exceptions, but about the common run-of-the-mill criminal. And, I fully agree that criminals need to feel the weight of their actions. But, what I question is a retribution model that is run in such a way that it brings into question our moral commitments as a culture and our moral commitments as Christians. And, the second opinion I question is that most crimes need to be dealt with by sending the criminal to jail. I am not convinced that the incarceration model works. In fact, I pointed out that the jail statistics in this country are far outside the norm for the rest of the world. We are a country that relies heavily on incarceration as our main tactic of retribution, and we have essentially given up on rehabilitation. As a result, as I pointed out, we have a higher proportion of our citizens in jail than any other country in the world. Our penal costs are staggering and we are not even spending all we should if we truly believed that jails should be controlled by the guards and should not be schools for criminals.
 Most countries in the world use a much wider variety of tactics to deal with criminals than we do in the USA. As a result, their prison population is lower and their crime rate is lower. In fact, often, it could be argued that their crime rates are lower precisely because their options for dealing with criminals are much wider than ours. There are many crimes for which incarceration is not the first or the only option.
You might be surprised to see that the same is true in the Bible. For instance, check out Numbers and Deuteronomy on the laws concerning the “Avenger of Blood.” As has been pointed out by all scholars, these are laws concerning someone who has committed the crime of manslaughter. The law neither requires capital punishment nor financial punishment. Instead, the person goes to a City of Refuge and is placed on internal exile, not being allowed to leave that city until the death of the current high priest. But, he is otherwise free. Most property crimes, including many robberies, were dealt with not by incarceration but by the payment of restitution with an additional percentage as a penalty. Needless to say, a robber could quickly go broke! Several other crimes are dealt with by a type of restitution system rather than by either capital punishment, physical punishment, or incarceration.
In other words, the Bible itself does not require as many harsh punishments as many moderns would have one believe. While capital crimes are much more frequent than nowadays, nevertheless, a variety of techniques are used to deal with the criminal, most of which leave the criminal actually relatively free! This is a long way from our conception that there is basically only one technique that we may use.
In addition there are protections for the person accused of several types of crime that go far beyond the protections we accord to the accused. For instance, a capital crime generally required three witnesses for a person to be put to death. That is why the high priest had to find three witnessess for the trial of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And, the three witnesses had to fully agree, which is why the high priest was so frustrated at the end of their testimony. They did not agree, so the Sanhedrin could not reach a legal verdict. But, more than that, any witness to a capital crime that was found to have lied would himself/herself be subject to the death penalty, not to simple perjury charges. I would love to have that law as part of our law.
And, I am only dealing with the Old Testament and the Gospels here. So, here is a simple question. If the Bible has a variety of ways of dealing with a criminal, why do we not? Why must we insist on a technique of punishment, that did not exist until very modern history, as the only way of dealing with crime? And, why have we given up on rehabilitation?
===MORE TO COME===
Well, as a crypto-conservative-libertarian (I don’t even know what that means, but aren’t you impressed by the terms?), I am coming to some uncomfortable conclusions about justice and how its wheels turn in this country.
A very close friend committed a grave moral sin which also happened to be a felony. Confession and repentance and grief and a genuine turning (well, I guess that’s repentence).
There are so many who have been wounded in this, from the victim (far from an innocent victim, but nevertheless, in the eyes of the court, an innocent victim nonetheless) to the family of the perpetrator. Moreover, those in everyone’s circle of influence: we all are affected and wounded by this.
One wonders: what does incarceration solve? Is it a satisfaction of a sort of public debt? Is it meant (considering the root of the word “penitentiary”) for the perpetrator to be reformed? To serve as a warning to others?
Eighteen months incarceration away from children who depend on a parent’s provision. What does it solve? How is society helped?
Perhaps I am looking at this from the wrong perspective. I am obviously much too close to this particular situation to be objective in the matter.
Father, thank you for your well-written and thought-provoking articles about the American penal system. Quite frankly, I have not really ever considered such as system from the point of view of an Orthodox Christian — we certainly haven’t been prepared by our culture to do so, nor encouraged to ask such questions. The understanding you have set forth is one that we, as a nation, would benefit from having, not just in the blogosphere, but in town halls and in legislative meetings, and elsewhere on the public square. I hope you will continue these efforts on our behalf!
Thank you.