Shame on You
I must admit that for the first time in a long time, I saw a good documentary on TV. I know in the past, most of us have been quite pessimistic towards late nite tv, but I must give this show its credit.
There’s a judge in the US, that has taken a different approach to punishment for relatively small offenses. Enter Judge Joe Brown.
Most small time offenders end up with a few months or weeks in jail. In most cases, its a low security jail and its a party in there because most of their mates are in there already. You can just imagine the reunions…
Instead of just throwing these minor miscreants in jail now, Judge Joe Brown formed his own type of punishment that has become known as ‘shaming’. The documentary showed a few cases of how this was accomplished. One lady who was caught driving under the influence (she didn’t hurt anybody…was just pulled over), was sentanced to a month of walking down a busy street in her home town, holding up a sign that said something to the effect of, “I am a drunk driver. I am stupid…” etc etc… Another small time drug dealer who was quite conscious of his spiritual need and attended church regularly, was made to stand up in front of the congregation and make a formal apology in front of everyone.
For the first time in a long time, something good has come out of America.
In my opinion, this is a brilliant means of punishment. I mean think back to when you were younger. What was the worst part of being caught doing something wrong? It wasn’t so much the spanking, wasn’t it more painful when you had to go apologize to the person you’d wronged? That was the worst…
Now this Joe Brown guy is capitilizing on that and it really seems to be working. A lady who was caught pilfering something from a department store, was sentanced to sit in Judge Brown’s courtroom and write out 100 000 lines saying “I will not steal ever again.” They let her leave with ‘parole’ after around 76 000 lines. By this time her fingers were blistered, full of calouses and you could see she’d learnt her lesson.
Granted this method won’t work for every crime. Walking down mainstreet with a placard saying “I am a baby-rapist” will more than likely get the guy killed…which wouldn’t be a bad thing…but regardless, this form of punishment is limited in certain ways, but I’m all for it for the smaller offenders. The jails are apparently crowded as it is and with these kinds of small time crooks, half their friends and family is in the jail already so its more a reunion than a jail-term.
Personally, I’m all for it. Viva la Joe Brown.
Besides Danii Minogue, this is the only good thing to come out of America… Oh, urm… wait a sec – Danii is from Down Unda, so this will be the only good thing to come from America :-)