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Show Thomas Brumley's Common Ground ... ifi's bvious Meiv &moch bs Needed By Thomas Brumley A question very much on the minds of many people in Moab these past few months is the question ques-tion of how best to deal with the outbreak of crime and vandalism which seems to have struck Moab with the virulence of a plague foreign fo-reign to the region, an unknown virus akin to small pox, and just as disturbing to the body politic. As in any outbreak out-break of new symptoms, cool heads are required, for diagnosis, and for treatment. There is some talk, here and there, about the need and desirability of a "beefed up" police force with which to tackle the problem. But a machine ma-chine gun next on every corner of town would bring no new cures, simply sim-ply new symtoms. A child dead on the' floor of the store (and there has been dark talk of this) would not solve the problem either. What we are seeing are the acts of troubled children (but not innocent inno-cent children) and they are at once a challenge and a plea. These children child-ren (their ages on paper mean little in this context) con-text) are expressing (acting (act-ing out) deep seated rage, and deep, deep anger, ' daring the community to punish them, and pleading plead-ing at the same time for help. I do not know for cer- . tain, but if my experience experi-ence in these matters stands for anything, then these children are acting out in the streets of Moab, against innocent but sym bolically significant figures, fig-ures, the rage and anger they must feel at home. I do not know, but I would guess, that their homes are troubled places pla-ces to live, and difficult places to grow. Troubled parents raise troubled children, and the children child-ren of troubled parents often act criminally, antisocially. Sometimes they are caught when they are young (often they are not) and introduced, less than cordially, totheme-chanations totheme-chanations of the criminal crimi-nal justice system. This experience, as we all know well, too well, does little to change the behavior beha-vior in question. Why? Judges and prosecuting pro-secuting attorneys are, by and large, well educated, edu-cated, well meaning peo- pie. Most of them are parents themselves. But when it comes to changing chang-ing the behavior of a juvenile offender with the means at their disposal, they find they are quite limited. The choices are narrow. A judge has the option of sending a young person per-son to jail for his crime (I am of course, talking about convictions here) or of not doing so, and choosing some of a limited lim-ited number of alternatives. alterna-tives. If he sends the child to jail, he knows, and we know, that he is very likely sending an amatuer for professional level training, and that the community at large will at some future moment, mo-ment, suffer still more at the hands of an angrier, angri-er, more cynical, more proficient crook, and no longer a child. So the child is kept in the community, com-munity, often placed on probation, continues his acting out, grows older, and either becomes a professional crook, on his own, without State subsidized training, or fades from view, oneway or another. For a few offenders, this brush with the rather ra-ther impotent armamentarium armamen-tarium of the criminal justice system is sufficiently suf-ficiently painful to alter their behavior, but for most it is not. If it were, the crime rate would be dropping, not rising. Why? Because visiting a probation officer a few-moments few-moments a week, keeping a curfew, paying a fine, do nothing to treat the symptoms of the underlying under-lying disease. The child is returned to his home, to his school, to his behavior, be-havior, and his personality, person-ality, for all of the time he has been alive, and the "punishment" is so nearly a farce in his eyes that he comes to realize that he is not going go-ing to receive the help he is really asking for, and he is not going to receive the punishment he is asking for, and that the whole system is a terrible joke just as he thought at first, and he learns as well there are more rewards in continuing con-tinuing than in not. For this very reason, confession and absolution absolu-tion are not the answer, kindhearted as they may appear. What is needed, if you agreed with the foregoing, is a change of environment, a radical change if you will, into a place where entirely new behavior is learned. Away in every way from parents, and from friends, and into a place where self respect is taught, and self reliance is taught, and where concern con-cern for others is learned learn-ed as well. There are several methods me-thods of approach to these goals, and if there is an interest, I would be happy to discuss them in future, but it is not my purpose here to lay out the details of a therapeutic thera-peutic community, but to offer an alternative up for discussion. No, I do not think every juvenile delinquent (does anyone use that term anymore?) any-more?) might be helped by such an approach. Yes, i" think that for some there is, sadly, no other way but removal from the company of law abiding abid-ing citizens, for ourpro-tection, ourpro-tection, if nothing else, and because for some no other method available at the moment will help. There are young people so twisted, so early, that no one know s how to untie their knot, but there are .r.any that are not, and many that can be saved. What can be said in certainty cer-tainty is that what we are doing at the moment is not working, and new ideas are needed. Let's think about it together. One more thing: I do not mean this as an indictment in-dictment of policemen, attorneys or judges, nor do I have any wish to seem cruel to the parents par-ents involved. We all have our shortcomings. No scapegoats are needed. |
