Voices: The Eyes Have It
Someone is watching you read this column.
OK, that may or may not be true. If it is, you probably won't be scratching any intimate places during the next five minutes. It's nice to have the house to yourself to reign in your inner freakdom without the (immediate) threat of scrutiny. Yet, the world would probably be a more beautiful place if someone were always watching.
The ultimate goal, of course, is that people be trusted to police themselves. If you don't feel confident enough to defend your actions to others, you probably shouldn't do it. But society's found the fear of some god and the threat of law enforcement necessary ingredients in keeping the peace. I'd better not speed down the turnpike because a cop might be hiding around the bend.
During the height of last summer's revelations of possible ethical and human rights violations at the Lackawanna County Prison, a number of citizens committed to seeing justice carried out joined forces. They named their network Justice Watch and invited anyone with a story to step forward and share their concerns.
With the reports of arrests these past couple of weeks, I recalled the formation of the group and wondered what had become of it. The grand jury's conclusion disturbed me and I didn't like the feeling of helplessness that accompanied my concerns. Yet what could I do? True, taxpayers and voters did hold the former county commissioners responsible for their inaction and misjudgments when they failed to reelect them to office.
But could we possibly prevent the spillage next time? You know, so that it doesn't have to come down to cleaning up a mess?
If anyone knew how a common citizen like myself could positively channel her frustrations, I figured, it would be Dr. Everlena Holmes of Justice Watch.
A recently retired academic dean of health sciences with post-doctorate certification from Harvard, Dr. Holmes is my hero of the month (if not the year) and I haven't even met her yet. When I contacted her via e-mail last week with a desire to learn more about Justice Watch, she promptly sent me pages of statistics, a local case study, materials to catch me up on the past eight months, insights and a report from her work at the state level.
Most effectively, she shared her personal story. Her attention to Scranton is partly the result of her son's journey through our local justice system. He is currently incarcerated for a offense she is certain he did not commit.
I haven't had the chance to verify the material I've read. But if only a fraction of the alarms rung by Dr. Holmes's personal essay "Unfair Practices in Scranton's Criminal Justice System" can, in fact, be supported, we're in need of reform that won't happen with a few firings and arrests. The work ahead will realistically require decades to evolve.
Justice Watch can raise the bar of accountability solely by paying attention. In a program initially titled "Adopt-a-Prisoner," now known as "Prisoner Watch," the activists visit inmates and acquire first-hand knowledge of how the prison is operating. The group has already held public hearings, offering those afraid of and disillusioned by the system someone to talk to and someone to trust.
Prisoners deserve access to the same basic human rights as you and I -- especially considering that sometimes innocent people really are convicted. It may not happen as often as convicts say it does, but it's not a myth. Just like racial profiling -- it's ugly to admit, but,unfortunately it is not a myth.
When I was a poor freshman on scholarship, my college roommate accused me of stealing quarters from her vase of laundry money. I had the obvious motive and opportunity and she didn't care about evidence. She had decided I was guilty and treated me cruely. Later, two jocks from down the hall confessed and she apologized profusely. But it was too late. She had already punished me for this crime I did not commit. People make errors in judgments on both sides of the law. Sometimes the stakes are higher than others.
Like an emergency room doctor, the justice system holds lives in its hands. Prisoners can't file for malpractice, but their lives deserve the degree of care guaranteed to patients.
-- alicia grega-pikul, 8 April 2004
Send mail to: apikul@timesshamrock.com.
