Chapter 11 the Small Changes That Save Lives

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Chapter 11 the Small Changes That Save Lives Chapter 11 The Small Changes That Save Lives Alida Trieu For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’ (John Greenleaf Whittier, 1856) The criminal justice system has enforced different approaches to control the level of crime within their jurisdiction, whether it be deterrence, retribution, incarceration, rehabilitation, or a combination of these methods. The ideal goal of using these approaches is: (a) prevent the current offenders from committing more crimes, and (b) discourage the average citizen from committing their first offence. The scale in which each approach is enforced relies on the political standing of the given country and their societal norms. It could be said that rehabilitation is an approach that has been underutilized up to this point and given the opportunity, could improve prison populations and recidivism rates dramatically. The Man Named McDuff To help illustrate how rehabilitation could have changed the criminal justice system, for better or for worse, it is necessary to examine an old, but notorious, case from the United States: the ‘Broomstick Killer’, Kenneth McDuff. The name Kenneth McDuff was widespread in Texas during 1966, a name to be remembered and feared. McDuff was known around his community as an aggressive bully that did not hesitate to start fights, and he had unofficially confessed to a select few acquaintances to have been involved in kidnapping, raping, and killing many women (Cartwright, 1992). McDuff had been in and out of prison on multiple charges of burglary, which only increased his notoriety among the local police (Lavergne, 2013). 117 The Forensic Science Alternate Universe On August 6th, 1966, the day which would make him famous, McDuff and a coworker named Roy Dale Green traveled to Fort Worth and later that night, McDuff found his next victim and convinced Green to help him with his crime. The two men kidnapped Edna Sullivan, her boyfriend Robert Brand, and his cousin Mark Dunnam in McDuff’s vehicle, driving to a field before killing the two boys with a gun. Sullivan was taken to another area to be raped and strangled to death by McDuff with a broomstick – the murder weapon of choice earning him the nickname ‘The Broomstick Killer’ (Cartwright, 1992; Lavergne, 2013). Throughout these events, Green had not been completely on board with the crime; he still went along with the offences. After the murder, Green confessed about the crime to the local sheriff, ‘bringing in’ himself and McDuff. Green was sentenced to 5 years for Marcus Dunnam’s murder and another 25 years for Louise Sullivan, while McDuff was sentenced to capital punishment. His execution would be stayed twice in 1969 and 1970 before new changes to the capital punishment law changed his sentence to life in prison (Cartwright, 1992). Although many appeals were denied (Tex.Cr.App, 1968; Tex.Cr.App, 1997) due to increasing prison populations and lowered standards of the parole board at that time, McDuff was able to be released on parole in 1989. Unable to stay out of trouble, McDuff was rearrested for misdemeanor charges and breaking parole. Many bureaucratic issues arose, leading to McDuff’s release. Paperwork regarding to the reinstatement of his parole meant for parole board chairman James Granberry was never delivered to his desk, rather it was redirected to a parole division staff attorney (Cartwright, 1992). Without a hearing, testimony or any further investigations, the staff attorney approved of the reinstatement because McDuff was eligible for parole based on the criteria. Additional factors contributed to this devastating decision such as overwhelming prison populations, and lack of testimonies and witnesses. All these elements led to him being released, where he proceeded to kidnap, rape, and kill at least three more women – Melissa Northup, Valencia Kay Joshua, and Colleen Reed (Cartwright, 1992). After being hunted down and arrested, McDuff was tried for the murder of Colleen Reed. He was sentenced to capital punishment, carried out on November 17th, 1998 (Cartwright, 1992). 118 The Small Changes That Save Lives Polarizing Frameworks To understand the contrast of what had happened, and what could have happened, it is important to compare two very different criminal justice frameworks: that of Norway, which relies heavily on rehabilitation, and that of North America, specifically the United States, which focuses on punishment and incarceration. United States The United States has the highest recorded incarceration rates per capita; based on a 2013 rate of incarcerations per one hundred thousand individuals with 716 individuals incarcerated; Texas at the highest rates per state. When reviewing the political agenda of ‘getting tough on crime’, the U.S has been pushing this narrative for the past several decades (Enns, 2016), many criminal laws have changed that have made punishing the criminal for their deeds a priority, evident in the Rockefeller Drug Laws which pushed for harsher and longer sentences for charges that used to be considered misdemeanors. Comparing a sentence in the mid-1970’s of 15 years to life for possession of two ounces of cocaine to the 2004 standards of 8 years, the U.S is evidently pushing for deterrence and incarceration (Enns, 2016). The efforts the U.S government has been placing in incarceration does not completely reflect the opinion of the public. A survey conducted through the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research in 1981 revealed public support for rehabilitating offenders was double the support for punishment (Enns, 2016). In a 2017 systematic review of seven areas of prevention and rehabilitation – developmental and social prevention, community intervention, situational prevention, policing, sentencing/deterrence, correctional interventions, and drug treatments and interventions (Weisburd et al., 2017) - the researchers found involving the offender in a community where they are able to develop a supportive relationship with others through methods such as group cognitive behavioural therapy, therapeutic communities, developing relations with the local police, receiving education, and developing useful skills show positive outcomes in crime prevention and recidivism rates. 119 The Forensic Science Alternate Universe Norway When given the choice of what crime control framework Norway would employ, they did the opposite of the United States and chose to focus more of their resources into rehabilitating their inmates. Their incarceration rates only make up one tenth of America’s with seventy-two incarcerated per 100,000 individuals in the national population (Labutta, 2017). Factors that play into the decreased rates are fewer incarceration sentences, mainly due to the reduced population size, and shorter sentences. Norway’s recidivism rates are also significantly lower than the countries around it, with approximately twenty percent re-arrest rates and about twenty-five percent re-incarceration (Labutta, 2017). Many factors encourage Norway’s lower incarceration rates: public perception, government backing, and most importantly their focus on reintegration of inmates back into their society (Anderson & Gröning, 2017). Their criminal justice framework is working for restoration and rehabilitation instead of retribution, deterrence, and incarceration. Compared to the United States approach of locking the offender away from society and leaving them until their sentence is up, Norway employs the principle of normality which seeks to prevent the unintended negative side effects of being placed in prison (Anderson & Gröning, 2017; Labutta, 2017). While an inmate’s freedom is removed, their life in prison is molded to mimic everyday life. The prison is not isolated from the community, rather it encourages the inmates to make connections with the community. The medical, educational, occupational, and religious activities are outsourced from the communities neighboring the prison. Inmates are allowed to roam around the prison grounds and even encouraged to develop friendly relations with the guards – although the degree of freedom does depend on the specific prison. The more severe punishment for Norwegian inmates is isolation but the need to use it is much less compared to the working normality principle. To sum up this principle, Norway aims to prepare their inmates to return back into society by giving them positive life-skills and connections that they may have lacked prior to incarceration. Implementing these programs and prisons are not perfect, with flaws evident throughout the framework. In two studies that interviewed inmates and guards from a 2010 study of Ila prison and a 2016 study of Viken prison, researchers found similar mixed opinions regarding the effectiveness of 120 The Small Changes That Save Lives rehabilitation programs (Anderson & Gröning, 2017; Værøy, et al., 2010). Summarizing the results, both studies found that the majority of inmates understood the resources available to them but found the programs too generalized, which discouraged many of them from voluntarily participating. The second flaw was the lack of resources available, be that number of officers, space, or access to specific programs. Especially in Viken prison, researchers found higher rates of mental health concerns and drug use because of the delayed inmate distribution system resulting in isolated and bored individuals – a small scale mirroring of U.S prisons (Anderson & Gröning, 2017). To a New Future Let us try to imagine an alternate universe where
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