"Enforcement" and "Corrections"
Created | Updated Oct 5, 2006
Punishment is a word that only gets used in the US along with the word capital. Executions are considered the only sort of really nasty treatment of offenders... although many modern executions are much nicer than most modern forms of torture, including incarceration in second rate facilities run by commercial concerns who have no reform or corrections agenda. They are merely storage houses.
The use of "deadly force" by armed officers and guards is a very contentious matter. An officer or guard can spend years doing the best that he can in the face of abuse by perps and the public and all he has to do is screw up once or even engage in legal self-defense or threat reduction and have his life ruined by people who don't have the guts to do what he did yet have the gall to criticise someone who is dealing with people that they don't want to be anywhere near.
I have lived around relatives who should have been in jail and a couple who should have been executed. I have known schoolmates who ended up in prison and I knew a high school teacher who killed herself and a schoolmate who committed suicide.
I have known perpetual offenders who were fairly nice people and I have known completely unbearable jerks who had never done anything illegal, the just did legal stuff in an offensive manner.
I have had to deal with offenders and just plain idiots in my jobs as a security guard and a retail clerk in several stores. As a night clerk in an inconvenience store, I have had to function as both a guard and a clerk. I don't like doing either.
Law Enforcement is a relatively new concept that took currency during the Sixties. Police suddenly found themselves writing tickets and issuing citations and even arresting people for violations that had previously been presided over by other departments. The Police also found themselves inundated with more paperwork. Community relations, walking a beat or just plain maintaining a comforting presence fell by the wayside as the officers became concerned with more than they could realistically handle. As the volume of local ordinances, state laws and federal offenses increased, the funding and training for street and patrol officers decreased. As the scrutiny of their behavior and methods increased, the support and education the officers needed decreased.
Prison guards became Corrections Officers during the Sixties. The concept of a prison as a Correctional Facility actually goes back to the thirties. It sounds nicer than hellhole for degenerates. There used to be a concept of reform for prisoners. Corrections suggests that something wrong might be made right. But the educated morons who create policy don't want to deal with the individual offender or where they come from or why. They want to deal with the group as a bloc of societal blots that create problems for the mercantile interests. So, they took a liability and through the commercialization of prisons, made it an asset. Companies who own hospitals, orphanages, mortuaries and retirement communities also now own prisons. Some recently incorporated cities are also hiring companies to run their trash collection, street maintenance, power grids and water supplies. How long before they take over the police and fire?
