In a distorted reflection of popular entertainment, courts across the land are resorting to colorful and non-standard punishments in their sentencing practices. Shame is the common denominator in these case:, an array of punishments that share a spirit with the stocks of old.
Nationally recognized legal scholar Jonathan Turley, currently a professor at George Washington University, shared a survey of a few such incidents in a recent interview for The Kansas City Star:
In a 2009 column for USA Today, Turley cited an abusive father in Texas given a choice of spending 30 days in jail or 30 nights sleeping in a doghouse. He chose the doghouse to be able to keep his job.
In an Ohio case, a municipal judge sentenced two teens found guilty of breaking into a church on Christmas Eve to march through town with a donkey and a sign reading, “Sorry for the Jackass Offense.” The same judge later ordered a woman to be taken to a remote location to sleep outside for abandoning kittens in parks.
Is it just me or do these sound like the sort of punishments meted out in fuedal Europe?
Turley said Texas Judge Ted Poe made people shovel manure to degrade them. Poe parlayed his “poetic justice” into a congressional seat, while Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has faced complaints over orders that male inmates wear pink underwear.
“To some extent, we’ve seen the merging of law and entertainment in the last 10 years,” Turley said, noting that citizens are being given a steady diet with television programs such as Judge Judy and Judge Brown.
I find it hard to think of a more disturbing combination than of the courtroom and this sort of lowbrow “entertainment.” It would be one thing if these bizarre penalties were more effective, but they’re not.
He said he has seen no evidence that shame sentences have any more impact than conventional ones and thought society had “turned back the door” on such primitive sentences in the 18th century.
Entertainment value should never be a factor in sentencing. Never.
It’s the early 21st Century now. We’ve eliminated shaming as a punishment along with debtor’s prison and the selling of indulgences. At least that’s what I thought until I started running across these stories.
The subject is once again in the news, this time a tale originating from Utah. Valerie Bruno was in for a shock at the Carbon County Court Complex in Price, Utah. It was there that 7th District Juvenile Court Judge Scott Johansen told her to cut off her daughter’s ponytail in court in order to reduce the 13-year-old’s required community service. The May 2012 hearing spurred her to file a complaint with the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission against the presiding judge.
This sort of behavior is unbecoming of someone sitting on the judicial bench. Not only that, but it is also counter to all known findings about effective rehabilitation. Inducing shame and injuring a child’s self esteem is the exact wrong way to go about getting any sort of effective long-term results.
Have you seen any of this “Judge Judy justice” being handed down in your community? If so let us know, as we intend to follow up on this highly disturbing trend.
Related articles
- ‘Shame’ punishments like ponytail cutting increase (sfgate.com)
