A Life Sentence for Petty Theft
California’s three-strikes law, doing what it does best:
According to Yolo County prosecutors, a man should serve life in prison for “swiping a woman’s wallet from a convenience store counter” and “stealing $3.99 worth of shredded cheese”.
“They say 22 years in prison failed to teach [Robert] Ferguson” — a repeat burglar — “to obey the law.”
Okay, in other words: Disregard the fact that prisons do not deter crime; forget the disproportionate imprisonment of impoverished minorities relative to the general population; never mind the utter lack of regard for prisoner welfare and safety, nor the corrupting nature of prisons. Do these things, so that you won’t notice the crimes against humanity being committed.
The prison system is a blight on human society in which the impoverished and alienated classes are systematically targeted and abused. Once having been imprisoned, individuals are most often condemned to a life of crime — barred from the normal wage slave or public sector jobs and naturally lacking the access to capital or productive means. We must treat those branded “criminals” and terrorized by the police, courts, and prison systems as they are: human beings.
The first duty of the revolution will be to abolish prisons — those monuments of human hypocrisy and cowardice. Anti-social acts need not be feared in a society of equals, in the midst of a free people, all of whom have acquired a healthy education and the habit of mutually aiding one another.
Next month Robert Ferguson will be sentenced, possibly to life in prison for mere petty theft. Perhaps such an extreme case of the unethical treatment of so-called “criminals” can serve as a starting point for those that doubt that there are better ways to deal with anti-social behavior.
