You Found the Problem, But You Don't Know What It Is

This CNN article is well worth the read, even though it comes to the completely wrong conclusion.  Michelle Alexander writes that she's a criminal, and so are you:

"[People in my social circle] have an unspoken, but deeply rooted identity as "law-abiding citizens." I ask them, "Haven't you ever committed a crime?" Oddly, people often seem perplexed by this question. What do you mean? they say. I mean, haven't you ever smoked pot, didn't you ever drink underage, don't you sometimes speed on the freeway, haven't you gotten behind the wheel after having a couple of drinks? Haven't you broken the law?

Well, yeah, they say, but I'm not a criminal. Oh, really? What are you, then? As I see it, you're just somebody who hasn't been caught. You're still a criminal, no better than many of those who've been branded felons for life."

The article then talks about the plight of felons in America: how in many states they are not allowed to vote, that they may be ineligible for government hand-outs such as food stamps, and that some people will not want to rent to or hire felons.  She points out that President Barack Obama has admitted to committing drug crimes in the past, but we let him be president because he was never convicted.

Ms. Alexander is right on all of these points.  She's also right to point out that many laws are disproportionately enforced against certain groups.  People are no longer convicted because they committed a crime, everyone fits that description, so we convict people we don't like.  Members of certain demographics -- the poor, people living in rough neighborhoods, and yes, sometimes minorities -- seem more criminal, or so we're told, and are least likely to have adequate legal counsel, so they are prosecuted for their crimes while others' crimes are ignored or lowered to misdemeanors.  Similarly, some things just rub us the wrong way on an emotional level -- for example, sex crimes.  Even a prankish, victimless sex crime, such as sexting, brings with it grave consequences -- consequences that should be reserved for adult child pornographers who, wait for it... victimize children.

However, the answer is not, as Ms. Alexander suggests, that we should be nicer to criminals.  She concludes that we should identify more with convicted felons, show them more compassion, less stigma, and fewer consequences.  She seems to be oblivious to what happens to a society in which being a felon carries no stigma.  Has she ever spent time in Ford Heights, Illinois?  I have.  Try convincing people there that being a felon makes you a bad person.  Try convincing them that they should get a job.  Bring a phalanx of armed and highly trained body guards, or you may not survive trying.

The problem is not that being labelled a criminal carries serious social stigma.  The problem is that everyone in America is a criminal, and being convicted of a felony or not does not have a direct, predictable relationship to having committed a serious crime or not.

Here are just some examples of people who may be felons:

A young man who reached the age of majority before his long-time girlfriend and future wife.  He'll be on a sex offender registry for life, he and his wife can't legally live near their children's school, and he'll have trouble finding employment.  The sex was consensual, was legal when they started having sex a couple of years prior, and was legal after his release from prison when they married.  His "victim" begged the prosecutor not to press charges.

A teenage girl caught "sexting" -- that is, sending naked pictures of herelf to her boyfriend from her mobile phone.  Worse than "felon", she also gets to wear the label "child pornographer".  For life.  She, too, will be imprisoned, and then listed on a sex offender registry.  So much for her future career as a nurse.  So much for moving back in with her parents and two younger siblings while she tries to rebuild her life after her incarceration.  All because she took a silly picture of herself when she was 14.

Providing alchohol -- any alchohol -- to a person under 21 is a felony in most places.  So, forget that disgusting sip of dad's beer when you were five that put you off the stuff until your thirties.  Today, dad would be a felon for having allowed it.

We can put all the Italian families out there in jail now -- I've never dined with one who didn't serve wine (even a little bit watered down for the younger family members) with dinner.

You can put me in jail, too -- I shared my NyQuil (a cough syrup that contains alchohol) with a teenage friend who was feeling unwell.

We don't need to identify with felons, or remove the stigma a felony conviction brings.  We need to stop making crimes of every ordinary human behavior the government can think of objecting to.