I love my country. The United States of America is my home, and I’m proud to be an American. But there’s no doubting that our nation has flaws, and one in particular really bothers me. It’s the systematic approach we try to use to fix every issue.
With almost every single hot-button issue in this country, politicians and talking heads are always debating on what should be done to “fix” it. The solutions they come up with, though, are almost always ironclad, but the issue at hand never is. They are always trying to solve complex and multi-layered problems with simple answers. How is that working out? Pretty terribly I’d say.
Let’s take a look at some of the typical talking points that seem to never end.
- The war on drugs: It has been a complete failure, and anybody who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.
- Gun control: So many people are either pro-gun or anti-gun with no in between. There’s a reason this debate has never ended.
- Abortion: Again, so many people are either for or against. Still controversial.
The judiciary system and the laws on the book are my issue with how these hot-button issues have been handled.
The way to combat these issues i s to treat them on an individual basis. We need more programs in place to make informed decisions on how to best help an individual. Will it take longer and require more work? Sure it will. Will it cost more up front? Undoubtedly, yes. But the systems in place now aren’t working, and there is so much to be gained in the future.
A Bureau of Justice Statistic study in 2016 revealed convicts from state prisons had a five-year recidivism rate of 77 percent. That’s far, far too high. The root of the problem is our nation invests and doubles down on the system. What it needs to do is invest in people, which would in turn save money in the long run and create more productive members of society.
I watched a speech a prosecutor in Boston gave a few days ago, and he told a story about a poor high school student who had been accepted into college but didn’t have the means to pay for it. The kid made a poor choice and stole 30 laptops from Best Buy and sold them online. The prosecutor could have easily charged him with 30 felonies and ended the kid’s future right then and there.
Instead, he worked with the student to recover 75 percent of the laptops to return to Best Buy, and they came up with a way for him to raise the rest of the money to pay Best Buy back, on top of community service. Six years later the prosecutor was at a function for young businessmen in Boston, and he saw that very kid across the room. They began talking and the prosecutor learned that the kid he could have sent to prison was now running a big-time bank, and he thanked the prosecutor for saving his life.
Another success in this country is drug court. Drug court actually focuses on individuals and their issues rather than locking them up for years for non-violent offenses. In 2017 the National Institute of Justice discovered that drug court participants reported less drug use, less criminal activity and had fewer rearrests by substantial margins than those on probation or incarcerated for the same offenses. I’ve seen it myself with one of my best friends going through a two-year drug court program.
He was always a great guy but was mixed up with some things that could ruin his life. He could have gone down a bad road. But drug court helped turn his life around, and now instead of being imprisoned he’s in college and on a path to success.
It’s our obligation to do better not only as a country but as human beings. I believe we were put here on this earth to impact others around us and those after us.
I know we can do better if we treat these issues on an individual basis. If our country took unique approaches to the aforementioned hot-button issues rather than archaic yay-or-nay proposals, I believe the U.S. would create a far better future.
Joshua Campbell is sports editor of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him at joshuacampbell@columbianprogress.com.
