Let me begin by admitting that I have interacted with the justice system before.

At age

16, I found out that my cross-country coach had been filming me changing for years. I was

traumatized, mortified, and horrified, particularly at the thought of sending him to prison.

Although the process was arduous, emotional and lasted nearly two years from arrest to

sentencing, I felt supported and comforted by the members of law enforcement I met.

The experience left me with a deeply appreciative and positive view of the justice

community, and even prompted me to ponder becoming a prosecutor. I saw those considered

“criminals” as inherently bad, and believed wholeheartedly that any rehabilitative efforts would

be wasted. To protect society from the scourge posed by offenders, it seemed essential that they

should be incarcerated for as long as possible.

Over the past year, the courses I have taken in Law, Societies and Justice have changed

my outlook drastically. Last fall, I took my first LSJ class, LSJ 200. I will never forget when

Professor Herbert taught us about the four theories of punishment. I had been operating under the

theory of retribution, which can be summarized as “an eye for an eye.” I was confident in my

belief that those who violate the law should be put away. They broke the law, I thought, likely

harmed other members of society, and must have known the consequences.

The more I listened to professor Herbert, however, the more I realized that my prior

experience had made me vengeful. Slowly, I began to favor the theory of rehabilitation. The

evidence presented in class taught me that although as it may feel fair to sentence offenders as

harshly as possible, it will not help them change their lives and prevent future crime. Instead,

incarceration makes it more difficult for offenders to re-enter society and gain employment,

making crime the easiest way to make ends meet. This course armed me with the tools to think
critically about our justice system, instead of purely through the lens of my trauma, and made me

more empathetic towards offenders.

Last spring quarter, I took LSJ 375, which showed me how much my experience with the

justice system may have been influenced both by my race and my economic class. Before this

course, I would have agreed with the statement that those in prison or jail nearly always have

committed crimes that either harmed persons or property, a view that makes it much easier to

justify their incarceration. I felt morally superior, certain that all prisoners brought their fate upon

themselves.

Professor Frost made it very clear that not all those in prison are there for serious offenses

such as assault or robbery. Instead, many prisoners are the victim of a classist and racist system

in which poverty is criminalized. Fines and fees from minor crimes, such as traffic offenses or

failure to pay child support, can accumulate and cause those already living in poverty to add ex-

con status to the list of things stacked against them. Even after a simple traffic ticket, processing

and court fees may be added, raising the total amount due further. When a person cannot or does

not pay their fine, it accumulates interest, and can add up even further. If the fine becomes large

enough, an offender may be incarcerated. Coupled with three strikes laws, which can cause

nonviolent offenders to endure life sentences, society incarcerates the poor for being unable to

pay, thus creating a modern-day structure of debtors’ prisons.

I could not believe my ears. The very system that comforted and inspired me often punishes

the poor for simply being poor. As someone who is deeply passionate about fairness (just ask my

parents about my brother’s curfew), the realization that a speeding ticket I could pay and quickly

move on from could lead to incarceration for someone else enraged me. How could society do

this to the most vulnerable among us?

 LSJ has shown me a side to the justice system that I otherwise would never have seen. As

someone who hopes to one day be a prosecutor, I feel so lucky to have been able to learn both

about the grudge our society seems to hold against the poor as well the errors in as my original,

vengeful ideas about punishment. I have grown as a thinker through LSJ, as well as a person, and

I hope to have the opportunity to continue to learn and grow in the major.