"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" - Mahatma Ghandi

or, "In which Claire has a rant instead of channelling that energy into her paper which is due on Friday"

So, the state of California executed Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
Here's a thing: I know very little about this case. But I don't think I need to to have my say.
Here's another thing: this is what I think. The death penalty is wrong.
It is archaic, narrow-minded, draconian, primitive, prejudiced, racially biased, it doesn't work as a deterrent, its flawed and goes against the religion that many of those who practice it claim to follow.
I believe there are two types of attitudes towards criminal punishment, one of which works, and one of which doesn't.
There is the "lock them up so we are safe from the nasty criminals" school of thought. This subscribes to the idea that there is something fundamentally different between those that commit crimes and those that don't. That there is some type of "criminal" gene and once a person is a criminal, that is all they are and will ever be.
Well guess what. Most of the time we are the same people. Sure, there are sociopaths and psychopaths and other such sorts of criminal types in the world, and when they hurt and kill innocent people it is a fucking tragedy.
But I believe that a considerable proportion of the people in prison are just like you and me, the only difference being that they got the short end of the stick when life was handing out opportunities. This does not excuse their actions, no siree bob, but it can help explain them, and offer a means by which the right people can give these people who have committed criminal acts an opportunity to turn their lives around and use their time in prison to attempt to make amends and get an education and hope to make a positive contribution to the world when they get out.
And I believe in this second school of thought regarding the prison system. The one where prisoners are made to confront their actions, where they are made morally and psychologically accountable for their crimes, and where they are treated like human beings, who, like all of us, end up where we are because of a thousand decisions we don't know the outcome to, and who are not always in complete control of their lives.

A good few years ago I went to a performance at the Women's Prison in my home town. It was called Watea, which, according to Te Pou Taki Korero means many things: freedom, ready, unencumbered, clear, welcome and safe. It is also a part of other words like whakawatea, meaning emancipation; whakawateatanga, meaning amnesty; and rangaawatea, meaning truce.

All of these meanings add up to the tone of the performance, which was given by inmates of the prison. I thought I had heard some stories before that night, but hell. I didn't know shit before I walked into that prison. Every single one of these women had a story that broke every heart in the audience.

But the thing is, they were not seeking sympathy.

They didn't want us to feel sorry for them because they were these poor women who were the victims of these terrible circumstances and somehow took a wrong turn and ended up in prison.
Exactly the opposite hapened. These women had been treated like shit their entire lives: beaten, sexually abused both as children and adults, neglected, and all sorts of terrible things it doesn't do well to dwell on. But because of the rehabilitation programmes available to willing and eligible participants, and the sheer strength of their characters, these women were no longer living as victims of their circumstances, they didn't use it as an excuse, they took responsibility for their actions, were breaking the cycle of violence and were doing their best to make amends for what they had done.
One women stood up and told us in no uncertain terms how she used to beat her child, and that was the reason she was in prison. She said she knew it was wrong now, and even though she had been beaten by her parents and sexually abused by her uncle it was no excuse for her actions and she had to live with that forever.
They had obviously allowed the families of the prisoners to come to the performance and in the break I saw the same women with her child sitting in her lap, the two of them were laughing and joking, and then the child who must have been five at most stood up and put his little arms around her neck for a cuddle. If that child can forgive her, then who are we to deny it?

Many years ago there was a terrible story about a woman named Tania Whittaker who was found guilty of manslaughter for allowing her partner to beat her daughter to death. It was all over the news, and Whittaker was pretty much demonised by the entire country. As one would expect.

Near the end of the show each of the women stood up and faced the audience in the gymnasium where the performance was held, and told her story. Most of the time it was fairly brief, like the woman who said she had beaten her child. Some of the women were child abusers, some sold drugs, some were involved in armed robbery, and there were a few in for murder or manslaughter.

And there are few more powerful things in this world than Tania Whittaker standing up, looking you in the eye and saying "I am in prison because I let my baby die. I will be here for a long time, but there is nothing that can compare to what I have to live with for the rest of my life. I could have saved her from him but I didn't".
To stand up and confess what you have done, to take responsibility for your actions when it involves the most horrible things in your life, that is real courage, and is the foundation of true redemption.

And I believe that shows the real power of rehabilitation in prisons. Breaking the cycle of violence and criminality by treating people like they are people with a mind and a conscience and a history, who perhaps were not taught the difference between right and wrong as a child because they were too busy being beaten or raped or terrorised or neglected by people who had no right to call themselves parents. People join gangs because they need to belong to something. They commit crimes because they see no other opportunities. They rob people because they themselves have been robbed either in the literal sense or by society, history, circumstance, or because there they see no other way to survive. They beat their children because they themselves were beaten as children. They abuse their children because they were abused as children.

By locking people up and throwing away the keys we are no better than the animals we treat prisoners as. To prevent crime we don't need to execute people, because guess what, THE DEATH PENALTY DOESN'T WORK AS A DETERRENT. Never, not once, not in any situation has it been proven to work.
To reduce crime we need to look at the source: poverty, ignorance, racism, violence, prejudice. It is a well worn phrase that prison is where you send someone if you want to make them a real criminal. Instead of locking people away, we need to talk to them. Find out what makes them tick. What makes them commit crimes. Hear their stories, because most of the time they are just like you and me.

A very clever woman once spoke to a rather stunned audience at the Christchurch Women's Prison, and she said: "It depends on what you believe prison is for. Do you believe people should go to prison FOR punishment, or AS punishment".

It seems fairly obvious to me that the former doesn't work.