Our Threatened Freedom
Are We Misjudging our Prison Convicts
Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Subject: Political Studies
Lesson: 163-169
Genre: Conversation
Track: 163
Dictation Name: Vol. M - Part 07 - Are We Misjudging our Prison Convicts
Location/Venue: Unknown
Year: 1980’s – 1990’s
[Dr. Rushdoony] Are we misjudging our prison convicts? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.
Recently a murder took place inside the Men’s Central Jail in Log Angeles California. A young man of 24, imprisoned for 6 months for petty theft and battery, was murdered because he refused to pay 5 dollars a week to live. A prison gang was extorting money from other prisoners, and beating all who refused into submission. This young man, having refused to pay at all, was beaten and kicked to death, less than a month before his release date. 15 street gang members were arrested for the murder. 2 were 18 years old, 1 was 24, and the other 13 gang members in prison were between 19 and 23 years of age. All were in prison on charges ranging from parole violation to murder. This extortion racket was not unknown to the jailers. According to Deputy District Attorney Peter Burman{?}, and I quote, “Any non-gang was to be charged 5 dollars a week to live on the row, and if he didn’t like it, he would be beaten up. The jailors would have to remove him and bring in another guy to be extorted.” The 15 gang members were arrested, but we can probably be sure that nothing will be done to the jailors, who are in a sense accessories to such extortion. This crime of course was only a brief glimpse into the cess-pool life of prisons. Homosexual rape is routine in jails. Prison life is a monstrous evil, and yet prisons were originally started as reform institutions. Our problem with prisons is that we begin and end with a false doctrine of man. Humanism holds that men are either naturally good, or worst, morally neutral. The solution to criminal behavior then, becomes rehabilitation, trying to change the prisoners outlook and lifestyle.
I believe it is time for us to view criminals again as sinners, as men with an evil bent. To be under any illusions about the nature of criminals is to be more and more defenseless in dealing with them. When parents of young hoodlums and murderers tell us that their sons are really good boys at heart, we need to challenge that assumption. I am weary of reading about model boys suddenly going wrong, only to find out too often that they were manifesting their evil character long before, only to have their parents cover up for them. When such people cover up their son’s evil, they only encourage him thereby to feel free to indulge his criminality all the more. If we regard our criminals as unfortunate men and boys, we are misjudging them. If we treat criminals as people who are really good at heart, we’re fools and suckers. The more respect and freedom we give to evil men and to criminals, the less freedom there will be for us to enjoy.
This has been R.J Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.