Thoughts on Justice

Justice. Lots of talk about justice. Seems one ought to have a clear concept of what that is. I think that the civil court system has a pretty good idea on how to achieve this. The idea is to “make someone whole”. Essentially, do your best to return them to the point from which they started.
For example, if someone bends a fender on your car, this is a pretty simple matter: The person that made the dent pays to have it fixed, and makes sure you have some sort of equivalent transportation while the repairs are being made. If you had to go into court to get the person to fix your car, you get your attorney fees covered and paid for time you missed from work. But at the end of it, where do you stand? Your car, back in the same condition it was before, and any expenses incurred in getting there are covered. You’re back to, pretty much, the same shape you were in before.
But then we get someone that’s been locked up, let’s say for a year, over some shit they didn’t do. That time is gone. Can it be made right? Well, I suppose you could get close, assuming he wasn’t too harshly treated while incarcerated. You can reimburse him for lost wages, and give him some money for time and suffering. You could attempt to rehabilitate his reputation by, VERY publicly, announcing that this individual was wrongly convicted. You might pay to send the person to school to regain lost skills, and get them up to where they would be with a year of experience. That year? It’s gone. Birthdays, holidays with family, things like that... all gone. At least for that year.
Now let’s take the situation above, but the man was also beaten to a pulp by the police, had evidence planted on him, and is being leaned on by the DA to take a plea deal for a 5 year sentence, or if he has the temerity to take it to trial, spend 25 years in jail on “stacked” charges. And it’s not just the one cop in on this, but 4 of his buddies knowingly assisting the “arresting officer”. The normal solution at this point is to throw money at him. Really, the training and all that… it’s not going to happen. But that doesn’t really cut it, does it. Let’s say those cops are still on the job. And not only that, a couple of them have been given promotions and pay raises. Is this person whole? Not even. He can’t travel his neighborhood in safety, there are state-protect criminals out there.
What is one of the things we expect (OK, vaguely hope for) from our justice system? Removing the bad guys from the street, so people fell that they can travel their neighborhoods in safety. But that didn’t happen, did it. Those cops are still out there, and on top of that, are protected by “the system”. And out victim? He’s got an arrest record now. And, on top of that, he’s now a target because he made the cops look bad. No, he’s not whole. He has not gotten justice. Those officers need to be taken off the street as the criminals they are. To get “whole”, our subject has to know that he can walk the streets in safety, and most especially safe from those who would do him harm, and lie about it, with Government backing. Then perhaps were getting close.
But there’s one situation for which there is NO justice, where NOTHING can make a person “whole”. Their death. A dead person cannot be paid money, he can’t travel where he will, be with his family, or enjoy holidays. For the dead person, there is no justice. There is no “becoming whole”. The money might help his family out if he was a person making an income, but that’s not really (most of the time) what the family wants. They want their love one back. And without that, there is no “whole”. It’s all over. Done. There is NO justice in this case.
So, as we think about justice, let’s keep the concept of “making it whole” in mind. Are we just throwing money at the problem, or are we working to get the person back to where they were before the injustice occurred. Are we removing those individuals we need to from the environment, and working to eliminate cultural systems (like “the thin blue line”) that promote injustice? And if we can’t get a person back to “whole”, are we working to get as close as possible? It may
Sorry to end off with a bunch of questions, but that’s really that’s what it’s about… asking questions. When seeking to write wrongs, whether our own or other peoples, we should be asking “Is this the best that can be done to restore wholeness?”
Thanks for your time, I appreciate it, and hope you found this worthwhile.