by Lorenz
I am an American citizen born and raised in Germany. While I love the USA and this is my home country, my values, I have found, are grounded in those of Western Europe, as I am discovering in my early 40s.
What continues to surprise me is that the US justice system is geared towards punishment, rather than rehabilitation and education. No one in Western Europe would doubt, that this young man had problems, was a criminal, and needed to serve a punishment of several years in prison, but nobody would ever, ever, suggest a life needs to be wasted and conclude a teenager needs to be put away for several life sentences?!??!?! Are you kidding?!
Note: Lorenz is referring to “Behind and Beyond the Wall”: Tyler’s Story of Finding Life in Darkness.
How is that teenager the same person at 17 that he will be when he is 43 like me? We all had problems at age 17! This is horrendous!
In Western Europe, we can admit that young people do dumb things. It’s a much much harsher process here in the US. (Of course, we don’t have supermarket access to guns and then ask ourselves innocently (“dumbly” – yes go ahead critique) how all those “horrible things” could happen on virtually a daily basis).
I am not a lawyer, but I believe that in Western Europe, in Germany (or Austria, or Poland, or France) this young man would have gotten a well deserved 4-6 years in prison. But in the US, the justice system that is completely built on punishment, rather than rehabilitation, is completely lagging more evolved parts of the world; it is lagging and is phenomenally old fashioned…
I once read an article about how the the US, as a society, is 100 years behind Western Europe.
Then, when I read articles like Tyler’s story, I realize…yes, it is!!! 100 years behind Western Europe. And this is not to say that Western Europe is in any way perfect. It’s not. Far from it. But when its judicial system is compared to what we have in the US, it seems like heaven on earth.
Click here to view Tyler’s posts:
“Behind and Beyond the Wall”: The Gift of Freedom
“Behind and Beyond the Wall”: Tyler’s Story of Finding Life in Darkness