Putting out Fires

Recently someone in my life got into a little tussle with the law.  And the law won.  He says he didn’t do it (don’t they all?), but I actually believe him.  His crime-that-he-didn’t-commit was bad enough that he has been placed on probation, and has to go through a thing called TASK.  Whatever that is.  I think it’s the driving school equivalent for a felony.  Thankfully, if he completes all of that his record is left clean.

Here’s the issue:  in addition to the 700 hours of community service he has to complete, TASK requires him to attend 3 NA meetings a week, and 1 night a week of group counseling.  As he has to complete a specified number of service hours a month, he basically does community service fulltime 5 days out of the week, and attends school the other 2 days.  But because he’s handicapped, he cannot accomplish most of the few tasks he’s given to choose from, so for the past two months he’s had to file extensions and the hours are piling up.  His grades in school are suffering because he literally has no time to study.  Not to mention the fact that he has no money because he doesn’t have time for a job, and he’s spending the little money he has on urine analysis 3 times a week (2 for TASK and 1 for probation).  Did you know you had to PAY out the nose for court-ordered UA?

My point is this people:  how does the ‘justice’ system expect to make people fit members of society if they take away any ability for these people to actually make a living?  Doesn’t this kind of punishment encourage questionable behavior?  If you are working your tail off to complete the tasks that the court has commanded of you, how can you be expected to meet the normal obligations in life? 

And those are just the big things.  I’m not saying that the justice system owes anyone anything, but can you imagine all of that, and then to have to miss your birthday completely because you could only find one half hour that entire week where you might be able to see your family? 

I’m telling you, someone out there has to have a better solution to this problem.  The court should not just indiscriminately hand out punishments without seeing that they appropriately fit the crime.  When will our justice system get smart and really try to make a difference with people who need it?