Punishment should fit the crime, quickly

We need to target actual bad behaviors, not status or race, ASAP to prevent escalation

Albuquerque is facing an unparalleled epidemic of crime and inappropriate behavior, from serious violent crime on the streets to inappropriate behavior in our schools and even youth sports. I am certainly no ”expert,” but I have 40 years experience practicing law, both as a defense attorney and as a prosecutor, and I have some observations about a fundamental flaw in our local mindset that leads to continued failings in our local educational and criminal justice systems.

The underlying problem we face is not a matter of financial resources, but a matter of policy and perspective. Caught in between the extreme liberal view of no punishment, only compassion, and the extreme right-wing view of locking everyone up, is a basic, common-sense approach of holding people accountable in direct proportion to their actions. By focusing on actual behavior rather than status of being poor, homeless, having a record or being a person of color we, as a community, can have a positive impact on preventing future bad behavior.

I would venture to say almost all people understand when they are being punished even if they don’t have the capacity to understand why. Punishment is usually an unpleasant experience that instinct, if not reason, compels a person to make some effort to avoid and therefore alters future behavior. Unfortunately, too often we ignore bad behavior until it gets intolerable.

Those well-intentioned people who are trying to avoid the infliction of punishment and pain are unintentionally encouraging bad behavior that could escalate and cause serious harm. On the other hand, those who are simply fed up with inappropriate behavior and crime and want certain individuals to be removed from society forget about the cost of that course of action — which, by the way, we have tried and it has failed.

Of course, the punishment must fit the crime. By exercising sound judgment and meting out appropriate and consistent consequence for bad behavior, some degree of future bad behavior can be prevented. If teachers and cops had the support of their administrations to address even small incidents of bad behavior in a reasonable and proportionate manner, not only would the classroom and streets be more civilized, there would be less burnout among those who work in these crucial professions.

It is well known that many people who have recovered from addiction or other mental health challenges have had multiple opportunities for treatment and have refused. Every interaction with the “authorities” gives that person an opportunity to be offered mental health treatment, which on a given day they might just accept. If so, this becomes a win-win for the individual, his family and the community.

I learned to appreciate the validity of this perspective when I read an article written by a professor from Mexico who was teaching in the United States. She wrote about a way to address the cartels in her home country. Declaring war on cartel members and their families will only cause a violent reaction, she argued. However, when you pursue charges against an individual for specific behavior, it is something even the worst criminal — or the loudest, disruptive kid in a classroom — can understand the reasons for. Doing nothing leads to the dysfunction and the dystopian state of affairs that we find ourselves in here in Albuquerque.